Will Philip Morris split itself, soon?

Company transformations and separations are not an uncommon occurrence. The goal of so-called spin-offs is to grow by shrinking first. Such special situations can create shareholder value that is uncorrelated to broader markets. Over the past days, I started to think through possible coming spin-offs. The iconic Marlboro maker Philip Morris came to my mind, as it could slowly start to make sense for them to start a divorce to focus on their growing business unit, throwing off ballast and cashing out, soon.

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Is the stock of M&T Bank the best pick among regional US-banks?

After the first wave of banking collapses last March and some subsequent calming down, the last few weeks have again been dominated by fears about who’s next. The California based First Republic Bank was the next to fall. Its assets were sold to JPMorgan. Stocks of other regional banks got hammered by even 50% in single trading days, as if this were nothing unusual. The search for the next victim is running. M&T Bank so far held up rather well (and managed to stay under the radar). Is it worth a closer look?

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Have you missed the best stock of the last 25 years? Here’s a second chance!

Last week, I wrote about missed opportunities and their lasting impact on me. Actually, they hurt me more and stay with me longer than realized losses where I have taken my lessons learnt. Today, I want to discuss one of the most successful – if not even THE most successful – stock(s) of the last quarter-century. Nearly self-explanatory, this was a somewhat surprising business development that many (including me) have missed. Is there maybe a second chance?

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German Conglomerates: Creating Shareholder Value from spin-offs? + new research report

Decades ago, it was en vogue to create big conglomerates. Size was associated with being a sign of strength, bringing robustness in times of economic distress. However, as “holding discounts” nowadays are holding these companies back from achieving higher valuations, the opposite direction is pursued to lift these “hidden values”. Many German concerns are currently in this process. There is also one particular under the radar opportunity that is too cheap to be ignored.

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US shale production is peaking – what it means for oil and gas prices

You can read everywhere that due to the “coming recession” in Western countries, energy demand is going to take a hit and push prices down. Likewise, you also find headlines that Chinese recovery demand might come in below expectations. It is a foregone conclusion that prices of energy will go down – everything circles around demand. But is this the big picture? What would happen if a massive supply shock took market participants by surprise? You won’t be surprised, but prepared, with this latest Weekly.

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A company uranium investors should be monitoring closely

The investment thesis and the soil for expected higher uranium prices is based on a growing supply and demand imbalance. This is what I already wrote about. An underinvested, not growing supply base is facing higher, maybe even way higher demand from existing as well as new nuclear reactors that are under construction. Today, I am discussing the biggest uranium project under development.

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Commodity stocks and recessions – clearing up a common misconception

As many commodity prices – being economically sensitive resources – have dropped massively over the last months (and even more so over the last weeks) as well as a recession being expected by the consensus, the question is whether equities of commodity producers in general are about to crash. At least this was the procedure during the last Great Recession of 2008–2009. However, this is too simplified, completely ignoring history.

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Megatrend of this decade: Dividend cuts + an update to my most popular article so far

Even though I know that I certainly won’t make many new friends with this article, especially not from the ranks of dividend investors, it is a duty for me to address this topic. I also think, it’s no coincidence that my most popular article to date has been about looming dividend cuts. Simply put, it’s too important to be ignored.

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Will Deutsche Bahn (DB) finally be broken up? + new research report!

In the past, this question was a no-go. On several occasions, speculation about at least a sale of non-core business units was put on the table, but quickly buried again. Over time Deutsche Bahn has accumulated so much debt that its barely profitable core operations cannot handle these obligations. An eternal zombie existence on government life support is not a viable solution. And then there is the ambitious investment offensive to modernize and expand the existing rail infrastructure. Is it finally time to break up Deutsche Bahn?

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Is NuScale Power Corp. (SMR) a sure bet on next-gen atomic reactors?

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the overall investment environment of uranium. I concluded from a top-level perspective, that due to a stressed supply-demand situation, higher prices likely are more a question of “when”, not “if”. After publication, one of my readers and Premium Members wrote to me about a certain company that could benefit from the plan to not only build more, but also smaller, next generation nuclear reactors. I have put this idea under the microscope.

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