Welcome back to this series on the market and finding undervalued dividend growth stocks to research.
Thank you to everyone who reads this series, I appreciate your support. This week’s report will be shorter than normal, as today was my youngest child’s birthday! It is times like these that make investing and growing my dividend income all worth it. Being able to provide for my children and hopefully be able to spend as much time as possible with them in the future.
The market continues its relentless decline, with the Dow down for the eighth straight week (first time since 1923) and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq down for seven weeks in a row now.
The continued fears of a recession, pushed on by higher interest rates, higher inflation, and supply chain disruptions and higher wages, has led to more selling as the week went on.
Two big earnings releases shook the confidence of the market and provided additional concerns about a weakening economy. Both Walmart and Target released earnings this week, and the market was not impressed, with the two companies’ stock prices down 19.49% and 29.40% for the week. Higher shipping and labor costs were part of the earnings concerns, but also the health of the consumer was highlighted. Target stated in their report that their customers were not buying the higher margin discretionary items in their stores that the management was expecting, instead focusing on buying more grocery related items, which have a lower margin for the company. The company’s net margin was cut in half this quarter as a result. Walmart blamed their miss on higher transportation costs.
These two companies are bellwethers of the consumer economy so this poor showing, coupled with the subsequent stock drop, is causing many to reevaluate the future forecasts for other retailers, including names such as Amazon, Costco, Dollar Tree, and Dollar General, the latter three all will be releasing their earnings later this week. If these companies also report issues, this could reinforce the selling in the consumer names we saw this week and weaken the market’s confidence in the economy.
The market was down last week again, with the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq down 2.90%, 3%, and 3.8%, respectively. The S&P 500 briefly hit a level that would consider it a bear market (down 20% from the high) but the market rallied back on Friday afternoon to close down 18.9%, above the official line for a bear market. The Nasdaq is squarely in bear market territory, with the index down nearly 30%.
As the prices go down across the market, more and more opportunities are arising to acquire great dividend growth companies at undervalued levels.
This week’s results of the valuation screening shows 34 companies on my tracker are now undervalued based on my 5 criteria.
- Discount to Analyst Price Target
- 10% or more off the 52-week high
- Discounted Cash Flow (DCF)
- P/E Mean Reversion
- Dividend Yield Theory (DYT)
Here are the quality dividend growth stocks that are appearing undervalued based on all 5 of my valuation methods:
Stocks Listed: AOS, APD, AVGO, BAC, BLK, BR, CAH, DLR, FNF, HBI, HD, IIPR, INTC, JPM, LEG, LOW, MDT, MMM, MSM, NKE, RY, SBUX, SMG, SPG, STOR, SWK, TD, TROW, TSCO, TXN, UGI, UNP, V, WBA
New stocks this week: CAH, LOW, NKE, UNP
This list should be used to begin your research to determine if the stock meets all of your investment goals and criteria. Valuation should only be one of many aspects you look at when deciding to make an investment.
Best of luck, happy investing, and check back next week for more undervalued stock ideas!