Commentary and analysis
Independent perspectives on companies, industries, investment sectors, and financial markets.
In early April, Five Star announced a change in its strategy whereby it will transition out of the management of 108 smaller senior living communities (SLCs) with 7,500 living units (with an average of 69.4 units per community),…
Continue reading →Merck is progressing toward the spin-off of its subsidiary, Organon & Co., which is expected to be completed by the end of the June. Organon will include Merck’s women’s health products, biosimilars and certain established brands, most of…
Continue reading →On April 9, Five Star and DHC announced a restructuring of their management agreement whereby DHC will transition the management of 108 smaller senior living communities (SLCs) with a total of 7,500 units to other operators by the…
Continue reading →In recent weeks, Merck has been following through on its plan to spin-off its subsidiary, Organon & Co., to shareholders. On March 17, it filed its Form 10 registration statement related to the transaction. On March 24, it…
Continue reading →Diversified Healthcare Trust reported 2020 fourth quarter normalized funds from operations (FFO) (my definition) of $15.1 million or $0.06 per share, slightly better than 20Q3, but well below 19Q4. The results were modestly better than I anticipated with…
Continue reading →Citius Pharmaceuticals (CXTR) is a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on the development of four potential products: (1) Mino-Lok, an antibiotic lock solution to treat and salvage infected central venous catheters (“CVCs”) in patients with catheter-related bloodstream infections (“CRBSIs”);…
Continue reading →Vaccination of 90% of Residents Raises Visibility on a Rebound in Occupancy Five Star reported slightly stronger 20Q4 results than anticipated, due primarily to gains on investments held by its captive insurer. Average occupancy across its owned and…
Continue reading →2020 was of course dominated by the impact of the pandemic on the economy and specifically on the revenues and profits of each of the S&P 500 constituents. There was a sharp stock market sell-off in March-April, followed…
Continue reading →Despite Ongoing Uncertainties about the Pandemic, the Economic Recovery and Global Events, the Stock Market is Poised to Move Higher in 2021. The financial markets turned in a stellar performance in 2020, the year of COVID-19, when real…
Continue reading →Yesterday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that nonfarm payroll employment declined by 140,000 in December. The estimate for November was increased by 135,000. The level of employment for December was therefore virtually unchanged from the November report.
Continue reading →2020 was a surprisingly solid year for housing in light of the pandemic and the havoc that it wreaked in other parts of the economy. December data will not be reported until later this month. I project that…
Continue reading →Diversified Healthcare Trust reported 2020 third quarter normalized funds from operations (FFO) (according to my definition) of $11.0 million or $0.05 per share, well below results for 19Q3 and 20Q2 and also below my projection of $27.8 million…
Continue reading →General Electric reported a 2020 third quarter GAAP loss of $1.16 billion or $0.13 per share on revenues on revenues of $19.4 billion, down 17%. In the 2019 third quarter, the company reported a comparable net loss of…
Continue reading →Shares of GE have underperformed both the broader market and GE’s industrial peer group since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The weak performance reflects primarily the company’s exposure to the aviation business, which prior to the pandemic…
Continue reading →Despite continuing elevated unemployment and dampened consumer confidence, the housing market has been surprisingly strong in the months following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the U.S. Commerce Dept., single-family housing starts for August were estimated…
Continue reading →Diversified Healthcare Trust (DHC) reported 2020 second quarter normalized funds from operations (FFO) (according to my definition) of $52.8 million or $0.22 per share, down 33% from $81.1 million or $0.33 per share in the prior year quarter. …
Continue reading →Five Star Senior Living continues to cope with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on its operations. During the 2020 second quarter, it experienced a 3.8% decline in occupancy from 82.5% to 78.7% across its owned and managed…
Continue reading →Homebuilding stocks have been on a wild ride in 2020. They boomed from the start of the year, rising 19.1% (according to my index of 11 publicly-traded builders) to February 21, handily beating the 3.0% gain on the…
Continue reading →DHC’s share price closed on Thursday (4/9) at $3.51, down 58.4% year-to-date, worse than the peer group average of down 24.7%, but the stock is up from its bottom of $2.00. Most of the losses for DHC occurred…
Continue reading →As noted in a previous post, it is most appropriate to value GE as a single, stand-alone enterprise. Several unifying investment themes support this view:
Continue reading →In April 2015, partially in response to the regulatory restrictions that accompanied GE Capital’s designation as a systemically important financial institution by the Financial Stability Oversight Council, GE adopted the GE Capital Exit Plan, under which it planned…
Continue reading →In my view, the most appropriate way to look at GE’s stock valuation is to consider the company as a single enterprise. In this analysis, I compare its current valuation to peers. My calculations for GE’S enterprise value-to-EBITDA…
Continue reading →Based upon management’s guidance given at General Electric’s 2020 Outlook meeting on March 4th, I project 2020 Industrial Leverage EBITDA of $11.6 billion, up roughly 3% from 2019. Industrial Leverage EBITDA was given in the appendix to the…
Continue reading →Given the complexity of its business mix and financial structure, valuing GE is not an easy exercise even under benign economic conditions. The task is made even more difficult when there is considerable uncertainty about prospects for the…
Continue reading →GE’s stock has been battered during this sell-off, falling much more than the broader market as a whole. Since reaching an intra-day peak of $13.26 on February 12 (roughly one month ago), the stock has fallen 40.8% to…
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