Let's 'Clean Up' Our Investment Strategy With Earnings Commentary

When collecting information for our investment themes at Tematica Research and our Stocks Under $10 and Trifecta portfolios, we draw from lots of data, including earnings commentary from company executives. Here, we'll go through some of those recent talking points that speak to our Tematica Cleaner Living investment theme, and zero in on several stocks that you should look at right now. We did this recently, too, with our Digital Infrastructure & Connectivity and Cybersecurity & Data Privacy investment themes. Some of what you'll see confirms the Cleaner Food and Dining component of our Cleaner Living theme and some of it speaks to our Cleaner Building and Infrastructure component. And, as we sift through the collection of comments, you'll see that it also speaks to other companies and competitors -- like ChargePoint and International Flavors & Fragrances -- which will give an idea of how to approach those names. Let's dig in: Coty, Inc. , Aug. 26: (We) unveiled a new brand repositioning campaign, disruptive advertising, and a highly successful launch of the clean vegan mascara in early spring... The long-awaited re-launch of the new Kylie Cosmetics line together with the new integrated Web site happened on July 15. Together with Kylie (Jenner), we took the opportunity to update all of the cosmetics products, assuring that each product was vegan, cruelty free, with clean formulations, free from over 1,000 contested ingredients while delivering top notch quality. (I'd point out here that this echoes what e.l.f Beauty a few months back, and with others serving the beauty care and personal care markets, this move to cleaner products looks to be anything but a fad.) Blink Charging , Aug. 12: During the quarter, we made tremendous progress with 3,264 commercial and residential chargers contracted, sold, or deployed and the number of commercial Blink owned charging stations contracted or deployed, grew more than 46% compared to the same period in 2020... As the world transitions to driving EVUs, Blink can prepare the way by providing our chargers as a key component to what will be a much in-demand infrastructure, the national infrastructure charging stations around the world... (In Europe), EVs are being adopted at a faster rate than in the US and it follows that they're growing market share should translate into higher utilization of charging stations. Historically, Europe has experienced higher fuel prices, which makes the transition to EVs more attractive by providing a stronger value proposition for drivers. Tattooed Chef, Inc. , Aug. 12: ... at the end of 2020, our branded products were nearly 4,300 stores and had 23,000 points of distribution. We have grown this to 8,355 stores at the end of Q2 with 48,070 points of distribution exceeding our previous projections... by the end of the third quarter we'll be in over 12,000 stores, with 79,402 points of distribution... Our new capabilities in 2021 include gluten-free, soy-free, plant-based meat production, and with the foods of New Mexico acquisition, we can now produce alternative tortillas, snacks, burritos, handheld quesadillas, enchiladas, and more. Beyond Meat , Aug. 6: According to SPINS IRI Consumer Panel Data for the 52 week period ended June 27 2021 and on a year-over-year basis, our buyer rate increased 12%, purchase frequency was up 9% and our repeat rate increased to 5% versus a year-ago to 51%.... Our distribution footprint in international retail saw strong growth of approximately 5,000 stores, or a 21% increase sequentially driven mainly by expansion in Canada, Germany, Australia, Austria and the U.K. Trex Company , Inc., Aug. 2: Trex is and has always been one of North America's largest recyclers of plastic film... In 2020, we up-cycled more than 900 million pounds of plastic film and reclaimed wood, most of which would otherwise be destined for landfills. At our plants, scrap boards are recycled back into the manufacturing process as well. Additionally, our ongoing efforts to improve energy and resource efficiency in our plants helped reduce the company's energy use related to cooling by approximately 40% in 2020... Keurig Dr. Pepper , July 29: Looking specifically at the second quarter, more than 70% of our cold beverage retail sales base expanded market share, reflecting continued growth of CSDs driven by core brand strength and innovation, the most recent being our new Zero Sugar lineup, which is performing exceptionally well. PepsiCo , July 13: I think the non-sugar portfolio is excellent and that's the area of the category that is growing the fastest... I think we're very well positioned from the R&D point of view and the innovation point of view on non-sugar. And the same for more permissible snacks... We have a much higher share in the non-sugar category than we have in the sugar category, and I think that's where we've been investing for a long time. We'll continue to invest. We see that trend not stopping for the foreseeable future and it's where we are putting our R&D investments, our brand investments and our innovation investments. When I look across the above comments, and think about the government's push to speed the adoption of electric vehicles, I wish that shares of Blink Charging made the TheStreet's quant screening cut the Trifecta Portfolio requires for being added to the active portfolio. I understand that requirement is part of the three-pronged investing strategy, and following those rules has been rather helpful. At the same time, Blink shares are well past the $10 cut off for the Stocks Under $10 Portfolio, but I do like them and see what they do as a vital part of solving at least one of the issues in driving wide spread adoption of electric vehicles. Needless to say I will continue to watch the charging station buildout and that includes digging into the earnings report from Blink's competitor ChargePoint, which is slated to report on Wednesday. Odds are it will paint a favorable long-term view, but how many charging points it expects to add in the coming year will be key piece of data. Also, what kind of partnerships is it embarking on to expand its footprint and how will that impact its need for capital? And for those looking to capitalize on the adoption of plant-based food and zero sugar beverages -- I did have a number of company quotes speaking to those markets -- a recommendation leaping from my buy the bullets, not the guns investment strategy is to take a look at International Flavors & Fragrances. If plant-based foods and zero sugar beverages don't taste and smell good, odds are their adoption won't be anything to write home about.

Let's 'Clean Up' Our Investment Strategy With Earnings Commentary

Here, we'll go through some recent earnings talking points that speak to our 'Cleaner Living' investment theme, and zero in on several stocks you should look at right now.

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