The following are today's upgrades for Validea's Low PE Investor model based on the published strategy of John Neff. This strategy looks for firms with persistent earnings growth that trade at a discount relative to their earnings growth and dividend yield.
TORONTO-DOMINION BANK (TD) is a large-cap value stock in the Money Center Banks industry. The rating according to our strategy based on John Neff changed from 40% to 77% based on the firm’s underlying fundamentals and the stock’s valuation. A score of 80% or above typically indicates that the strategy has some interest in the stock and a score above 90% typically indicates strong interest.
Company Description: The Toronto-Dominion Bank (the Bank) operates as a bank in North America. The Bank, along with subsidiaries, operates across four main business segments: Canadian Personal and Commercial Banking, the United States (U.S.) Retail, Wealth Management and Insurance, and Wholesale Banking. The Canadian Personal and Commercial Banking, which includes TD Canada Trust and TD Auto Finance Canada. The U.S. Retail segment includes TD Bank, a Convenient Bank, TD Auto Finance U.S., and TD Wealth (U.S.). The Wealth Management and Insurance segment includes TD Wealth (Canada), TD Direct Investing, and TD Insurance. The Wholesale Banking segment includes TD Securities and TD Cowen. The Bank offers a wide range of products and services, including banking accounts, financing, investment solutions, cash management (information, consolidation and reporting, payables, and receivables), U.S. banking services, global services, business credit life insurance, wealth advisory services and others.
The following table summarizes whether the stock meets each of this strategy's tests. Not all criteria in the below table receive equal weighting or are independent, but the table provides a brief overview of the strong and weak points of the security in the context of the strategy's criteria.
| P/E RATIO: | FAIL |
| EPS GROWTH: | PASS |
| FUTURE EPS GROWTH: | PASS |
| SALES GROWTH: | PASS |
| TOTAL RETURN/PE: | PASS |
| FREE CASH FLOW: | FAIL |
| EPS PERSISTENCE: | FAIL |
Detailed Analysis of TORONTO-DOMINION BANK
ESSENT GROUP LTD (ESNT) is a mid-cap value stock in the Insurance (Prop. & Casualty) industry. The rating according to our strategy based on John Neff changed from 60% to 79% based on the firm’s underlying fundamentals and the stock’s valuation. A score of 80% or above typically indicates that the strategy has some interest in the stock and a score above 90% typically indicates strong interest.
Company Description: Essent Group Ltd. is a Bermuda-based holding company. The Company, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, offers private mortgage insurance and reinsurance, and title insurance and settlement services to mortgage lenders, borrowers, and investors. The Company, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Essent Guaranty, Inc., offers mortgage insurance. Its Bermuda-based subsidiary, Essent Reinsurance Ltd., is a specialty reinsurer that reinsures the United States (US) mortgage risk and provides underwriting consulting services to third-party reinsurers. Through its subsidiary, CUW Solutions, LLC, it offers mortgage insurance and provides contract underwriting services on a limited basis. Its business segment includes Mortgage Insurance. The Mortgage Insurance segment offers private mortgage insurance and reinsurance for mortgages secured by residential properties located in the US. It also offers other credit risk management solutions, including contract underwriting, to its customers.
The following table summarizes whether the stock meets each of this strategy's tests. Not all criteria in the below table receive equal weighting or are independent, but the table provides a brief overview of the strong and weak points of the security in the context of the strategy's criteria.
| P/E RATIO: | PASS |
| EPS GROWTH: | PASS |
| FUTURE EPS GROWTH: | FAIL |
| SALES GROWTH: | PASS |
| TOTAL RETURN/PE: | PASS |
| FREE CASH FLOW: | PASS |
| EPS PERSISTENCE: | FAIL |
Detailed Analysis of ESSENT GROUP LTD
About John Neff: While known as the manager with whom many top managers entrusted their own money, Neff was far from the smooth-talking, high-profile Wall Streeter you might expect. He was mild-mannered and low-key, and the same might be said of the Windsor Fund that he managed for more than three decades. In fact, Neff himself described the fund as "relatively prosaic, dull, [and] conservative." There was nothing dull about his results, however. From 1964 to 1995, Neff guided Windsor to a 13.7 percent average annual return, easily outpacing the S&P 500's 10.6 percent return during that time. That 3.1 percentage point difference is huge over time -- a $10,000 investment in Windsor (with dividends reinvested) at the start of Neff's tenure would have ended up as more than $564,000 by the time he retired, more than twice what the same investment in the S&P would have yielded (about $233,000). Considering the length of his tenure, that track record may be the best ever for a manager of such a large fund.
About Validea: Validea is aninvestment researchservice that follows the published strategies of investment legends. Validea offers both stock analysis and model portfolios based on gurus who have outperformed the market over the long-term, including Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, Peter Lynch and Martin Zweig. For more information about Validea, click here
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
