My portfolio – March update – Q4 earnings season
Q4 earnings season for 2016 is pretty much done. According to factset, 99% of companies have reported. We’re seeing a 4.9% earnings growth rate in Q4 2016. That is pretty decent and it’s the first time we’ve seen two consecutive quarters of earnings growth since Q4 2014 and Q1 2015. The stock market has seen market large price inflation despite not seeing any substantial earnings growth since 2014. CY2014 S&P 500 EPS was $118.96 and CY2016 will end up near $119.14. That means that pretty much all of the price appreciation since 2014 has been driven by P/E expansion. That’s not great to see from a long term investing standpoint.…
My portfolio – February update – earnings results
Earnings results are coming in quick and so far things have gone as expected. According to Factset, 67% of the S&P 500 companies that have reported have beat the mean EPS estimate. 52% have beat the mean revenue estimate. This isn’t a huge surprise as most quarters see companies beat earnings around that clip. 67% in EPS beat and 53% revenue beat are the 5-year average for the S&P 500. The Q4 growth rate now is estimated to be 5% versus an estimate of 3.1% as of December 31st. That is good to see as growth is the true engine that drives market appreciation. Assuming this holds it will also…
2016 : Year in Review – dividends, savings and portfolio
2016 ushered in the birth of this blog. I started this blog as a way to analyze and track my portfolio results. The goal was to introduce a level of accountability to my savings plan and early retirement goals. Let’s take a look at how we did this year in terms of dividends, savings and portfolio. I’ve always had a clear investment plan in mind. The goal was to retire early in the not so far off future. However, it wasn’t until this year that I took a long hard look at my numbers to see how far along I actually was; and whether financial independence and early retirement was…