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Technology dividend aristocrats represent mature tech companies that have maintained a consistent track record of increasing dividend payments for at least seven consecutive years. This shortened timeframe, compared to the standard 25-year requirement for S&P 500 dividend aristocrats, reflects the tech sector’s traditional focus on reinvesting profits into research, development, and expansion rather than distributing them to shareholders. These companies showcase remarkable financial management by successfully maintaining regular shareholder payouts while preserving their competitive advantages… Read More
With Shell reportedly exploring a blockbuster takeover of rival BP, the energy sector is once again front and center in the investing world. A potential merger between two supermajors would mark the largest oil deal in a generation and could reshape the global energy landscape. While Shell has dismissed the deal as speculation, the market reaction and broader context around the news suggest a renewed strategic focus among energy giants. This interest comes despite energy’s… Read More
David and Tom Gardner may not take themselves too seriously in their public personas, but their investing strategy is anything but foolish. The brothers behind The Motley Fool have helped millions of investors understand how to uncover fast-growing companies with durable fundamentals and compelling value. Their investing framework — which Validea has modeled in our Fool-inspired strategy — emphasizes small-cap growth stocks with strong profit margins, healthy cash flows, manageable debt, strong earnings and sales… Read More
substantial wealth for investors throughout this prolonged bull market. Yet this impressive index-level success tells only part of the story—many individual stocks within the index still represent genuine value propositions, regardless of the broader market’s gains. Critics often dismiss entire indices as “overvalued” following extended periods of growth, but this blanket assessment misses important nuances. Many NASDAQ 100 companies remain fundamentally sound investment opportunities when subjected to rigorous analysis, especially when market pullbacks create more… Read More
Free cash flow yield serves as a crucial indicator for spotting financially robust companies amid market uncertainty. This measure reveals businesses that efficiently convert their operations into cash relative to their market capitalization. Organizations with superior cash generation capabilities maintain financial autonomy, enabling them to expand operations, bolster their balance sheets, and compensate investors without relying on external capital sources. This independence proves especially advantageous during periods of restricted credit access. Such investments provide protective… Read More
Peter Lynch, one of the most legendary investors of our time, popularized the concept of GARP — Growth at a Reasonable Price — an approach that blends growth and value investing. At Validea, we’ve captured the essence of Lynch’s strategy in our quantitative model, which evaluates stocks based on metrics like the P/E-to-growth (PEG) ratio, growth, and other key fundamentals. With Validea’s Strategy/ETF Matching Tool, investors can now take that same Lynch-inspired approach and identify… Read More
While technology stocks have surged dramatically over the last ten years and typically carry high valuations, Validea’s analytical platform reveals undervalued opportunities within this expensive sector. The system applies 22 proven investment strategies developed by renowned investors such as Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, and Martin Zweig to identify tech companies that marry solid fundamentals with reasonable price tags. This systematic methodology uncovers technology firms possessing the characteristics that legendary investors seek: robust financial health, steady… Read More
When it comes to legendary investors, Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, and Peter Lynch represent three of the most iconic — and distinct — approaches to stock picking. Each has inspired legions of followers, and at Validea, we’ve developed systematic models based on their published strategies and philosophies. But in today’s market, with rapidly shifting macro conditions, rising rates, and ongoing uncertainty, which approach is winning? We dive into the numbers, examine the some of the… Read More
Not all value strategies are created equal. Some work great in backtests, but fail in the real world. Others are based on simplistic valuation metrics that ignore critical elements like debt, cash flow quality, or business fundamentals. This week’s featured strategy, The Acquirer’s Multiple, is designed to overcome those limitations by looking at stocks through the lens of a private acquirer or activist investor. It was developed by Tobias Carlisle, a noted expert on deep… Read More
The S&P 500 represents a diverse collection of over 500 companies spanning multiple sectors, with many running profitable and well-established operations backed by solid fundamentals that merit serious consideration from investors. This breadth presents compelling opportunities for those prepared to look beyond the most widely followed stocks through careful analysis. Using Validea’s robust analytical platform that combines 22 distinct investment approaches, we’ve pinpointed ten S&P 500 stocks displaying strong fundamental qualities that look especially appealing… Read More
When it comes to large-cap U.S. equity ETFs, few match the popularity, liquidity, and influence of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) and the Invesco QQQ Trust (QQQ). While both track major indexes and serve as core holdings in countless portfolios, the similarities stop there. In this post, we break down the most important differences between SPY and QQQ across key dimensions: performance, volatility, valuation, sector exposure, factor makeup, and fees. Quick Snapshot Metric… Read More
Dividend growth stocks serve as a fundamental building block for long-term wealth creation, providing investors with both steady income and the potential for capital gains. These investments feature companies that regularly boost their dividend payments each year, reflecting solid financial strength, reliable business operations, and a dedication to rewarding shareholders. When dividends are reinvested, the compounding growth effect can significantly enhance overall returns, while the increasing income flow helps investors maintain purchasing power against inflation.… Read More
When company leadership holds a significant ownership stake, it creates a strong alignment between management and shareholders. This shared interest encourages executives and board members to prioritize long-term value creation over short-term performance metrics. Leaders with meaningful equity positions are exposed to the same market forces as other investors, which typically results in more disciplined financial decisions and a focus on sustainable growth. Their personal financial outcomes are directly tied to the company’s long-term success.… Read More
The S&P 500 continues to push new highs, driven largely by a concentrated group of mega-cap technology names. Microsoft (MSFT), NVIDIA (NVDA), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Meta Platforms (META), Broadcom (AVGO), and Alphabet (GOOGL) together account for more than a quarter of the index’s total weight. Their dominance has fueled strong index-level returns – but also led to stretched valuation multiples across the broader market. As of June 2025, the S&P 500’s trailing price-to-earnings ratio… Read More
The S&P 500 continues to push new highs, driven largely by a concentrated group of mega-cap technology names. Microsoft (MSFT), NVIDIA (NVDA), Apple (AAPL), Amazon (AMZN), Meta Platforms (META), Broadcom (AVGO), and Alphabet (GOOGL) together account for more than a quarter of the index’s total weight. Their dominance has fueled strong index-level returns – but also led to stretched valuation multiples across the broader market. As of June 2025, the S&P 500’s trailing price-to-earnings ratio… Read More
Warren Buffett is known for his long-term, fundamentals-first investing approach. But some of the stocks in Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio are not just value plays – they’re momentum leaders too. Below, we highlight five Berkshire holdings that are showing breakout strength, based on 12-month relative strength and year-to-date (YTD) returns. These stocks combine price performance with Buffett-style fundamentals like strong moats, brand power, and disciplined capital allocation. Relative strength measures how a stock has performed compared… Read More
Financial markets are constantly evolving, and smart investors need proven methods to spot real growth potential. Professor Partha Mohanram created the G-Score framework in 2005 as a systematic way to analyze growth companies, serving as a growth-focused complement to Joseph Piotroski’s F-Score approach for value investing. The G-Score evaluates eight key financial metrics tailored specifically for growth-oriented businesses. It assesses how well companies invest in their future through research and development, capital spending, and market… Read More
Shareholder yield gives investors a comprehensive view of how companies deliver value to shareholders compared to their market value through three primary channels. Companies can distribute cash directly to shareholders through dividend payments from their earnings. They can also repurchase shares, which boosts the value of remaining shares by decreasing the total number in circulation. Finally, paying down debt improves the company’s financial stability and creates opportunities for stronger future earnings. This comprehensive measure has… Read More
Through the end of May, the industrial sector has quietly emerged as one of the top performers in the market. The Industrial Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLI) currently leads all major sector ETFs in year-to-date performance – a sign of investor interest in companies that help build the backbone of the global economy. But there’s more to the story than performance alone. Industrial stocks represent a diverse group of companies that build, move, manufacture, and… Read More
Dividend Aristocrats are S&P 500 companies that have increased their dividend payments for at least 25 consecutive years. Currently, fewer than 70 companies meet this criteria across various sectors of the economy. This extended period of dividend growth reflects consistent earnings performance over time. These companies have maintained dividend increases through different economic cycles, indicating their ability to generate steady cash flows and manage capital effectively. While some stocks offer higher current dividend yields, Dividend… Read More
Dividend growth investing focuses on companies that consistently increase their dividend payouts, offering investors a growing income stream and potential for capital appreciation. This strategy can be particularly effective in combating inflation and building long-term wealth. What Are Dividend Growth Stocks? Dividend growth stocks are companies that not only pay dividends but also have a track record of increasing those dividends regularly. These companies often exhibit strong financial health, reliable cash flows, and disciplined capital… Read More
Warren Buffett has built his investment approach around one core idea developed through decades of market success: purchasing outstanding companies at reasonable prices beats buying mediocre companies at bargain prices. His strategy focuses on finding businesses with strong competitive positioning—what he terms “economic moats”—that can maintain superior profitability over many years. Instead of following market trends or chasing speculative investments, Buffett targets companies with reliable management teams, steady earnings, and predictable cash generation that are… Read More
Investors looking for a diversified portfolio that performs well in all market conditions have long been drawn to the All Weather Portfolio, a strategy pioneered by Ray Dalio of Bridgewater Associates. Designed to withstand both inflationary and deflationary environments, the All Weather approach seeks to minimize volatility while aiming for consistent long-term returns. At Validea, we’ve built our version of the All Weather Portfolio based on the core principles of asset class diversification that underpin… Read More
This week, Nvidia once again lit up the investing world with blowout earnings, a reminder of just how powerful the AI-driven demand for compute has become. But while Nvidia (NVDA) commands the headlines, it’s far from the only semiconductor stock positioned to benefit from this generational shift. As Peter Lynch once said, “If you can’t explain to an 11-year-old in two minutes or less why you own the stock, you shouldn’t own it.” His message… Read More
The semiconductor sector is once again lighting up with momentum – and this time, it’s not just about Nvidia. According to Validea’s latest ETF Breakout Alert (as of May 30, 2025), three semiconductor-focused ETFs have emerged as standouts in terms of recent price strength, relative performance, and trend signals: All three have posted 15%-18% gains in the past month, dramatically outperforming the 5.2% average monthly return for their respective Large-Cap ETF categories. Each is now… Read More
Low volatility investing focuses on companies whose stock prices tend to move less than the overall market. While traditional finance theory suggests that higher returns come with higher risk, decades of research have shown that low-volatility stocks have often delivered better risk-adjusted returns than their more volatile counterparts. These stocks appeal to investors looking for more stable performance and less dramatic losses during market downturns. To capture this effect, we screened our database for stocks… Read More
The S&P 500 is home to America’s corporate giants – companies with massive scale, global reach, and market-moving influence. But while every S&P 500 member is large-cap by definition, they are not all created equal when it comes to fundamental strength. At Validea, we score every S&P 500 stock using a multi-model system rooted in the principles of legendary investors like Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch. This composite approach looks across profitability, valuation, growth, quality,… Read More
One of the most enduring ideas in long-term investing is the concept of the economic moat – a sustainable competitive advantage that protects a company from competitors, much like a moat protects a castle from invaders. Coined by Warren Buffett, the idea has become a cornerstone of high-quality investing: find companies that can defend their profitability over time, and you improve your odds of compounding wealth. But how can investors identify these wide moat companies?… Read More
Value investing has demonstrated remarkable long-term success because it exploits fundamental market inefficiencies—periods when emotional selling, neglect, or temporary business challenges cause quality companies to trade below their intrinsic worth. This approach works because markets consistently overreact to short-term news while undervaluing companies with solid fundamentals, creating opportunities for patient investors who can look beyond current sentiment. Small-cap value stocks offer particularly compelling advantages within this framework. Smaller companies receive less analyst coverage and institutional… Read More
In volatile markets, high-quality stocks function as stabilizing forces, providing durability when economic turbulence reveals the vulnerabilities of less solid enterprises. These outstanding businesses demonstrate consistent earnings expansion, preserve strong financial foundations, and hold lasting competitive moats that enable them to maintain superior capital efficiency throughout difficult market cycles. Investors who emphasize financial stability and operational excellence can construct portfolios designed to weather market storms while steadily building wealth through compounding returns. Validea’s quality-oriented investment… Read More
Momentum investing is a strategy that capitalizes on the tendency of winning stocks to continue winning by identifying securities with strong relative price performance that consistently outpace their peers and broader market indices. Rather than simply chasing rising prices, this approach systematically targets stocks demonstrating sustained upward momentum backed by solid fundamentals and improving business metrics. The strategy exploits several key market inefficiencies that create persistent price trends. Earnings surprises often trigger sustained price movements… Read More
In today’s rapidly evolving and intensely competitive business landscape, organizations that maintain substantial economic moats emerge as outstanding opportunities for sustained investment growth. These enterprises hold durable competitive strengths—such as powerful network effects, significant customer switching barriers, operational cost advantages, or proprietary intellectual assets—that protect their market position and profit margins from erosion. Due to these structural advantages, companies with robust moats typically generate superior returns on invested capital across extended timeframes, allowing them to… Read More
Dividend investing has long been favored by those seeking steady income, especially in uncertain markets. At the top of the dividend investing hierarchy are the Dividend Kings — elite companies that have increased their dividends for 50 consecutive years or more. These firms, all part of the S&P 500, have proven their ability to weather economic storms, navigate recessions, and still reward shareholders with rising payouts year after year. Validea defines Dividend Kings as companies… Read More
In today’s rapidly evolving and intensely competitive business landscape, organizations that maintain substantial economic moats emerge as outstanding opportunities for sustained investment growth. These enterprises hold durable competitive strengths—such as powerful network effects, significant customer switching barriers, operational cost advantages, or proprietary intellectual assets—that protect their market position and profit margins from erosion. Due to these structural advantages, companies with robust moats typically generate superior returns on invested capital across extended timeframes, allowing them to… Read More
When evaluating stocks, many investors are familiar with the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio – a classic valuation metric. But flip that ratio and you get the sometimes overlooked metric: earnings yield. In this article, we’ll break down what earnings yield is, why it can be more useful than the P/E ratio in certain contexts, and how you can use it to find potentially undervalued stocks, whether it be using the tools on Validea or other research… Read More
Validea’s investment approach is based on Peter Lynch’s strategies from his days managing Fidelity’s Magellan Fund. The method follows Growth At a Reasonable Price (GARP) principles, targeting growing companies at fair valuations. A key metric is the PEG ratio (Price-to-Earnings relative to Growth), with values below 1.0 potentially indicating undervalued growth opportunities. The strategy looks for companies with consistent 20-30% annual earnings growth while being skeptical of extremely high growth forecasts that may not last.… Read More
In Q3 2024, Berkshire Hathaway initiated a position in Pool Corporation (POOL), and in its most recent 13F filing, Buffett’s firm disclosed a 140%+ increase in that stake. While it’s still a relatively small position in Berkshire’s portfolio (about $460 million as of now), the investment gives POOL a meaningful endorsement from one of the world’s most successful long-term investors. A Business Buffett Can Understand POOL fits one of Buffett’s most time-tested filters: a simple,… Read More
Benjamin Graham, widely recognized as value investing’s founding father, established a methodical framework for identifying undervalued stocks that continues to guide investors decades later, most notably his famous student Warren Buffett. Graham’s approach centers on discovering financially stable, established companies trading below their true worth, avoiding speculative ventures with uncertain futures. Investment Philosophy Graham advocated for investing in businesses with proven performance histories rather than companies built primarily on future promises. This conservative strategy emphasizes… Read More
Twin Momentum combines technical analysis with fundamental quality assessment to create a powerful framework for identifying premium investment opportunities. This methodology only selects companies that excel in both price momentum and business fundamentals, specifically targeting those in the top 20% across both categories. The fundamental momentum evaluation analyzes companies through seven critical financial metrics: Pioneered by finance researcher Dashan Huang in his seminal “Twin Momentum” study, this approach represents a significant evolution in quantitative investing… Read More
Since 2003, Validea has tracked model portfolios inspired by legendary investors like Peter Lynch, Benjamin Graham, and Warren Buffett. These portfolios offer a rare and consistent lens through which to view the ups and downs of markets over the last two decades. In this retrospective, we examine how these strategies performed across major market events and what they teach us about resilience, timing, and the long arc of investing success. The below above summarizes the… Read More