Tag: US Market

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Dividend Stocks

Tyson Sets Sights on Improving Long-Term Efficiency

Business Strategy and Outlook

Several secular trends are affecting Tyson’s long-term growth prospects. While U.S. consumers (86% of fiscal 2021 sales) are limiting their consumption of red and processed meat (69% of Tyson’s sales), they are consuming more chicken (29%). International demand for meat has been strong, and although Tyson’s overseas sales mix is just 14%, it is likely to increase over time, as this is an area of acquisition focus. The beef segment has been a bright spot in Tyson’s portfolio in recent years, as strong international demand, coupled with a drought-induced beef shortage in Australia, has increased the segment’s operating margins to 10% over the past four years from 2% prior to 2016. 

Conversely, the chicken segment has suffered from executional missteps that have resulted in structurally higher costs relative to competitors. About 80% of Tyson’s products are undifferentiated (commoditized), so it is difficult for them to command price premiums and higher returns. Although Tyson is the largest U.S. producer of beef and chicken, we do not believe this affords it a scale-based cost advantage, as its segment margins tend to be in line with or below those of its smaller peers.

Financial Strength

Tyson’s financial health as solid and don’t see any issues to suggest that it will be unable to meet its financial obligations. While Tyson generates healthy cash flow and is committed to retaining its investment-grade credit rating, the business is inherently cyclical, with many factors outside of its control. But management has made changes to improve the predictability of earnings. Chicken pricing contracts, which now link costs and prices, and a greater mix of prepared foods (from 10% in 2014 to the current 19%) both serve as stabilizers. 

In terms of leverage, net debt/adjusted EBITDA stood at a rather low 1.2 times at the end of fiscal 2021, below Tyson’s typical range of 2-3 times. At the end of September, Tyson held $2.5 billion cash and had full availability of its $2.25 billion revolving credit agreement. Together, this should be sufficient to meet the firm’s needs over the next year, namely about $2 billion in capital expenditures, nearly $700 million in dividends, and $1.1 billion in debt maturities. Management has expressed a commitment to enhancing the income returned to shareholders in the form of its dividend (targeting a 2.0%-2.5% yield over time).

Bulls Say’s

  • China’s significant protein shortage resulting from African swine fever should boost near-term protein demand, while the country’s continued moderate increase in per capita consumption of proteins will drive sustainable growth. 
  • While investor angst over chicken price-fixing litigation has weighed on shares, Tyson’s recently announced settlements materially reduce this overhang. 
  • In the current inflationary environment, Tyson’s cost pass-through model limits potential profit margin pressure

Company Profile 

Tyson Foods is the largest U.S. producer of processed chicken and beef. It’s also a large producer of processed pork and protein-based products under the brands Jimmy Dean, Hillshire Farm, Ball Park, Sara Lee, Aidells, State Fair, and Raised & Rooted, to name a few. Tyson sells 86% of its products through various U.S. channels, including retailers (48%), food service (28%), and other packaged food and industrial companies (10%). In addition, 14% of the company’s revenue comes from exports to Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Europe, China, and Japan.

(Source: MorningStar)

General Advice Warning

Any advice/ information provided is general in nature only and does not take into account the personal financial situation, objectives or needs of any particular person.

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Funds Funds Research

Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund Investor Share: A fund providing outstanding diversification with ultralow fee

Investment Objective 

The Fund seeks to track the performance of a benchmark index that measures the investment return of stocks issued by companies located in developed and emerging markets, excluding the United States.

Approach

Vanguard’s portfolio managers use full replication to track the FTSE Global All Cap ex U.S. Index. This benchmark starts with all stocks listed outside of the United States and sorts them by their free-float adjusted market cap. It targets firms that land in the top 98% of each country’s market capitalization. The index uses buffer rules around the cutoff point to keep turnover low, and it applies some additional liquidity requirements to ensure that its holdings are investable. The index weights its final constituents by market cap, which helps further mitigate turnover and trading costs. It reconstitutes semiannually in March and September.

Portfolio 

This fund captures the entire foreign stock market. Its comprehensive portfolio effectively diversifies stockspecific risk, with only 9% of assets in its 10 largest holdings. . Sector weightings are comparable, with financial and industrial stocks collectively representing almost one third of the portfolio. Eurozone stocks represent the largest regional allocation, at 20% of the portfolio, while Japan and the United Kingdom make up an additional 16% and 9.4%, respectively. The fund does not hedge its currency risk, so its exposure to currencies like the euro, yen, and pound can add to its volatility. Stocks listed on emerging-markets exchanges account for a little more than 28% of this fund. Allocating to these companies improves the fund’s reach and shouldn’t materially impact its risk or performance. The fund includes small caps but weights its holdings by market cap. So, it leans toward large-cap multinationals, with companies like Taiwan Semiconductor, Nestle, and Samsung among its biggest names.

People

The portfolio managers on this fund are part of Vanguard’s Equity Index Group. Christine Franquin and Michael Perre share responsibility for this fund. They are both principals at Vanguard and captain some of Vanguard’s largest index-tracking funds listed in North America. This duo not only oversees the portfolio but also executes trades on a day-to-day basis

Performance

This fund’s category-relative performance has not stood out from its competitors in the foreign large-blend category. The Admiral share class managed to slightly edge out the average of its peers by 18 basis points annualized over the 10 years through November 2021. The fund’s larger-than-average stake in emerging- markets stocks was a drag during the first few years of that period and partially explains its mediocre showing. The fund’s composition looks a lot like the category average, and it remains fully invested in order to tightly track its target index. That means it tends to post average performance during volatile periods like the coronavirusdriven sell-off in the first quarter of 2020. The fund’s 24% decline was comparable to the loss incurred by the category norm over those three months.

Recent category-relative performance has been stronger. The portfolio led the category average by 67 basis points per year over the trailing three years through November 2021, landing just outside the top third of the category. Poor stock selection in the financials and information technology sectors on the part of some active managers hurt their category-relative performance and boosted the fund’s standing.

Top holdings of the fund

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About the fund

The fund tracks the FTSE Global All Cap ex U.S. Index, which includes stocks of all sizes from foreign developed and emerging markets. It weights them by market cap, an approach that benefits investors by capturing the market’s collective opinion of each stock’s value while keeping turnover low. This is one of the broadest portfolios in the foreign large-blend category. Its exceptional diversification mitigates the impact of holding the worst-performing names. It holds more than 7,000 stocks and has only 9% of assets in its 10 largest positions. Its regional composition looks modestly different from a typical fund in the category because it has a larger dose of emerging-markets stocks. But their weight in the portfolio isn’t large enough to materially increase the fund’s risk or compromise its category relative performance.

(Source: Morningstar)

General Advice Warning

Any advice/ information provided is general in nature only and does not take into account the personal financial situation, objectives or needs of any particular person.

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ETFs ETFs Research Sectors

iShares Core MSCI Total International Stock ETF: Access to the entire foreign market with low cost

Tile letter on red rack in word ETF (abbreviation of Exchange Traded Fund) on wood background

IShares Core MSCI Total International Stock ETFs seek to track the investment result of an index  composed of large,  mid and small capitalization non US equities.

Approach

This fund earns a High Process Pillar rating for capturing the entire opportunity set available to its actively managed competitors in a cost-effective way. BlackRock’s portfolio managers track the MSCI ACWI ex USA Investable Market Index. This benchmark starts with all stocks listed outside of the United States and sorts them by their free-float-adjusted market cap. The final portfolio does not hold every stock in its benchmark index. Instead, the managers buy a representative sample of stocks to match index performance. They nearly fully replicate the large-cap segment and hold a portion of the smaller companies in the index. This reduces the need to trade smaller and less liquid names, which reduces transaction costs.

Portfolio

This fund captures the entire foreign-stock market. Its comprehensive portfolio effectively diversifies stock specific risk, with only 10% of assets in its 10 largest holdings. Sector weightings are comparable, with financials and industrial stocks collectively representing about one third of the portfolio. Country and regional allocations aren’t far off the category average, either. The fund does not hedge its currency risk, so its exposure to currencies like the euro, yen, and pound can add to its volatility. Stocks listed on emerging-markets exchanges account for a little more than 28% of this fund, while a typical competitor has a 10% stake. 

People

Industry-leading technology and BlackRock’s global footprint support a strong team of portfolio managers, earning an Above Average People Pillar rating. Alan Mason is head of portfolio management for the Americas and helps manage this portfolio. Rachel Aguirre was promoted to iShares head of product engineering in early 2021 and no longer serves as a manager on this fund. This change should not disrupt the fund’s ability to track its bogy because it retains its three remaining managers and much of their workflow is automated.

Performance

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(Source: Factsheet)

Top holdings of the fund (%)

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About the fund

The fund tracks the MSCI ACWI ex USA Investable Market Index, which includes stocks of all sizes from foreign developed and emerging markets. It weighs them by market capitalization, an approach that benefits investors by capturing the market’s collective opinion of each stock’s value while keeping turnover low. Market-cap-weighting can be tough to beat because the market tends to do a good job valuing stocks over the long term. Its exceptional diversification mitigates the impact of holding the worst-performing names. It holds more than 4,300 stocks and has only 10% of assets in its 10 largest positions. The fund’s regional composition looks modestly different from the category average.

General Advice Warning

Any advice/ information provided is general in nature only and does not take into account the personal financial situation, objectives or needs of any particular person.

Categories
Funds Funds

Touchstone Flexible Income Fund Class Y: A flexible Income fund providing income as well as capital appreciation

Approach

The strategy’s primary hunting grounds include U.S. investment-grade and high-yield corporates, preferred stock, municipal bonds, and U.S. Treasuries. The strategy gains exposure to high-yielding corporate and municipal bonds via closedend funds–an uncommon tactic–which compose 5% to 15% of assets. Within these positions, the team focuses on the fund’s discount and quality of cash flow rather than its underlying holdings. Unlike most peers, the team doesn’t invest in emerging-markets debt, nor do they take on any currency risk. The strategy is benchmark-agnostic and flexible in its construction across asset classes and credit quality. It can invest up to 40% in junk-rated debt, which had peaked near 30% (including non-rated debt) up until September 2020. As of October 2021, the strategy’s non-investment grade exposure stands at 45%, owing to the increase in nonrated debt over the last year. The strategy tends to be concentrated; it is common to see individual positions between 2% and 4% each.

Portfolio

 The strategy continued to maintain a high allocation to preferred securities (34% of assets as of October 2021), followed by structured credit (32%, mostly in commercial mortgage-backed securities). The team modestly added shorter term Treasuries and maintained a nominal allocation to cash and cash equivalents towards the end of 2020 due to near zero interest rates. However, in the first quarter of 2021, the portfolio cut its 9% allocation to Treasuries to zero as the long-end of the curve sold off and no desirable returns were seen in the short-end. Post the first quarter of 2021, the portfolio’s exposure to treasuries, mostly short-dated, has increased drastically to 16% as of October 2021, owing to the flat credit curve and the credit spreads for riskier securities having tightened to pre-pandemic levels. The team has also reduced the exposure to corporate credits, both investment-grade (3.7%) and high yield (6.4%), given tight credit spreads. The portfolio’s exposure to nonrated debt has increased and stood at 30% as of October 2021, an increase of roughly 18 percentage points from last year. Most of this exposure comprises multifamily MBS originated by Freddie Mac, but still carry some risk.

Performance

 Institutional share class has shown middling performance within its nontraditional Morningstar Category peer group, returning 3.8% annualized. From November 2018 through November 2021, the strategy’s I share class has gained 6.5% annualized, outpacing more than 65% of its category peers, and beating its typical rival by 60 basis points. The team has made good use of its flexible mandate by tilting towards Treasuries and high-quality securitized credit heading into 2020 which helped ease some pain as the markets tumbled during the coronavirus-led self-off from Feb. 20 to March 23, 2020. However, the strategy’s 14.2% loss over that stretch was still in line with its peers. As markets recovered, the strategy gained a swift 25.3% from March 24, 2020, through to the end of the year, owing to the addition of battered corporate credits that rebounded later that year

(Source: Morningstar)

General Advice Warning

Any advice/ information provided is general in nature only and does not take into account the personal financial situation, objectives or needs of any particular person.