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.
LITHIA MOTORS INC (LAD) is a large-cap growth stock in the Retail (Specialty) industry. The rating according to our strategy based on John Neff changed from 42% to 81% 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: Lithia Motors, Inc. is a provider of personal transportation solutions. The Company offers approximately 30 brands of new vehicles and all brands of used vehicles in 201 locations in 21 states. It operates through three segments: Domestic, Import and Luxury. Its Domestic segment consists of retail automotive franchises that sell new vehicles manufactured by Chrysler, General Motors and Ford. Its Import segment consists of retail automotive franchises that sell new vehicles manufactured primarily by Honda, Toyota, Subaru, Nissan and Volkswagen. Its Luxury segment consists of retail automotive franchises that sell new vehicles manufactured primarily by BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Lexus. The Company also provides products and services including new and used vehicles, finance and insurance products and automotive repair and maintenance.
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: | FAIL |
| FUTURE EPS GROWTH: | PASS |
| SALES GROWTH: | PASS |
| TOTAL RETURN/PE: | PASS |
| FREE CASH FLOW: | PASS |
| EPS PERSISTENCE: | PASS |
Detailed Analysis of LITHIA MOTORS INC
RELIANCE STEEL & ALUMINUM CO (RS) is a mid-cap growth stock in the Misc. Fabricated Products industry. The rating according to our strategy based on John Neff changed from 40% 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: Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. is a metals service center company in North America (the United States and Canada). As of December 31, 2018, the Company's network of metals service centers operated over 300 locations in 39 states in the United States and in 12 other countries (Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom). As of December 31, 2018, it provided metals processing services and distributes a range of more than 100,000 metal products, including alloy, aluminum, brass, copper, carbon steel, stainless steel, titanium and specialty steel products in a range of industries. Its various metals service centers process and distribute only specialty metals. It delivers a range of products from facilities located across the United States and Canada. It provides a range of processing services for its customers' and delivers products to fabricators, manufacturers and other end users.
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: | PASS |
| SALES GROWTH: | FAIL |
| TOTAL RETURN/PE: | PASS |
| FREE CASH FLOW: | PASS |
| EPS PERSISTENCE: | FAIL |
Detailed Analysis of RELIANCE STEEL & ALUMINUM CO
PRIMERICA, INC. (PRI) is a mid-cap growth stock in the Insurance (Life) industry. The rating according to our strategy based on John Neff changed from 62% to 81% 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: Primerica Inc. (Primerica) is a distributor of financial products to middle-income households in the United States and Canada. The Company operates through three segments: Term Life Insurance, Investment and Savings Products, and Corporate and Other Distributed Products. The Term Life Insurance segment includes underwriting profits on its in-force book of term life insurance policies, net of reinsurance, which are underwritten by its life insurance company subsidiaries. The Investment and Savings Products segment includes retail and managed mutual funds, and annuities distributed through licensed broker-dealer subsidiaries and includes segregated funds, an individual annuity savings product that it underwrites in Canada through Primerica Life Insurance Company of Canada (Primerica Life Canada). In the United States, it distributes mutual fund and annuity products of various third-party companies. It also earns fees for account servicing on a subset of the mutual funds it distributes.
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: | FAIL |
| FUTURE EPS GROWTH: | PASS |
| SALES GROWTH: | PASS |
| TOTAL RETURN/PE: | PASS |
| FREE CASH FLOW: | PASS |
| EPS PERSISTENCE: | PASS |
Detailed Analysis of PRIMERICA, INC.
More details on Validea's John Neff strategy
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.
