What a trading week it has been, with one day left to go. On Thursday, the S&P 500 gave back 2.44%, while the Russell 2000 extended its streak to13 consecutive sessions in which the Index rose or fell at least 1%. During that stretch the Russell 2000 is down 8%.
Elsewhere, Groupon (GRPN) , a member of my 2022 Tax Loss Selling Recovery Portfolio, has dropped 24% the past two days after a nice run-up the prior week (shares rose 40% from Jan. 25 to Feb. 1). There was great excitement last week following the announcement that mobile payments company SumUp, in which GRPN holds a small stake, would be seeking financing that put the company's value in excess of $23 billion. What was unclear at the time was the size of Groupon's stake. On Wednesday, the company revealed it to be 2.4%, and investors curbed their enthusiasm. Still, if the SumUp valuation is money-good, Groupon's stake would be worth more than $500 million. That's considerable given Groupon's current enterprise value (EV) of about $550 million. I don't think we've heard the end of this story.
On Wednesday, dividend champion Corning (GLW) increased the quarterly dividend 12.5%, from 24 cents to 27 cents. Over the past 10 years, Corning has nearly quadrupled the dividend, to the tune of a 13.7% compound annual growth rate. In addition, it has reduced shares outstanding via buybacks from 1.219 billion at year-end 2014 to 852 million at the end of the latest quarter. Corning shares are up 14% year to date courtesy of better-than-expected fourth quarter earnings released last week. GLW currently trades at about 16x 2023 consensus earnings estimates and yields 2.53%.
Finally, Florida citrus name Alico (ALCO) fell 5% Thursday after reporting first-quarter results that were better than expected. Revenue of $15.34 million was $2.34 million ahead of the "consensus" (just one analyst), while its loss of 24 cents a share was five cents better than expected. While the price of "solids" has jumped from $2.25 a pound to $2.58, production will be lower. Post-first quarter, the late January freeze has impacted the company's Valencia orange crop, and the company has withdrawn guidance for now. ALCO which owns 76 square miles of citrus land, currently trades at 1.05x tangible book value per share and yields 6%, for now, anyway. Alico has been selling off its ranch land and still holds about 32,000 acres (50 square miles). This remains an asset play, not for the impatient, and operating results may be rocky this year.
