Tag: Suze Orman

Summary

CAVA Group, Inc., founded in 2006, owns and operates a chain of Mediterranean restaurants. The company has 8,100 employees.

Summary

Illinois Tool Works is a global manufacturer of engineered industrial products and equipment. The company’s operations are divided into seven segments: Test & Measurement and Electronics, Automotive OEM, Polymers & Fluids, Food Equipment, Welding, Construction Products, and Specialty Products. The shares are a component of the S&P 500. The company has 46,000 employees.

Summary

Lowe’s is the world’s second-largest home improvement retailer, with sales of $97 billion in FY23. Based in Mooresville, North Carolina, the company operated over 1,700 home improvement and hardware stores in the U.S. at the end of FY23. Retail selling space was about 200 million square feet. Home Decor, which includes appliances and paint, was the biggest merchandise division at 35% of FY22 sales. Building Products, including lumber, was 32%; Hardlines, including tools, seasonal, and lawn & garden, was 30%; Other categories represented 3% of sales. About 75% of sales are to individuals and 25% are to maintenance, repair, operations and construction professionals. The states with more than 100 stores at the end of FY22 were Texas, Florida, North Carolina and California. Online sales were 5% of the company’s total in FY20 and rose to about 7% at the end of FY21 and 11% in 4Q23.

The company’s fiscal year ends on the Friday closest to the end of January. Based on the fiscal calendar, FY17 had a 53rd week, which happens about every five years. The FY23 was also 53-week fiscal year. FY24 will end on February 2, 2024.

Summary

Our bond/stock asset allocation model indicates that bonds are the asset class currently offering the most value, as interest rates have risen and stocks have recovered some of the ground they lost last year. But stocks are not yet seriously overvalued. Our model takes into account current levels and forecasts of short- and long-term government and corporate fixed-income yields, inflation, stock prices, GDP, and corporate earnings, among other factors. The model output is expressed in terms of standard deviations to the mean, or sigma. The mean reading from the model, going back to 1960, is a modest premium for stocks of 0.15 sigma, with a standard deviation of 1.0. The current valuation level is a 0.70 sigma premium for stocks, which is inside the normal range but up from the 0.50 sigma premium at the beginning of the year. Other measures also show reasonable valuations for stocks. The current forward P/E ratio for the S&P 500 is 17, which is within the normal range of 10-21 and down from 22 a year ago. And the current S&P 500 dividend yield of 1.6%, while below the historical average of 2.9%, is up from an ultralow 1.2% as recently as 2021. Based on the current valuation levels, as well as our interest rate and earnings forecasts, we have called for a recovery in stock prices in 2023 from bear-market lows and are now boosting our year-end S&P 500 target to 4,600. Our current recommended Asset Allocation Model for Moderate accounts is 67% Growth assets, including 65% equities and 2% alternatives; and 33% Fixed Income, with a focus on opportunistic segments of the bond market.