3M on Monday provided 2022 financial guidance and a strategic update on its sprawling businesses. The industrial conglomerate's presentation contained few surprises or shifts in strategy. But management did not offer many updates on the biggest issue looming over 3M: legal liabilities tied to the firm's legacy PFAS chemicals and military earplugs. 3M manufactured PFAS from the [...]

Clorox shares were hammered Friday, down nearly 15%, following an earnings report that fell short of analyst expectations.In 2020, the maker of disinfecting wipes and bleach was an early pandemic darling whose stock price soared as demand for sanitization products exceeded supply.Management had predicted this pandemic-induced spike in demand would persist as part of the [...]

On Tuesday, AT&T provided an update on its plan to separate and combine WarnerMedia with Discovery. Most notably, AT&T elected to structure the separation as a spin-off rather than a so-called exchange offer. This surprised some investors since management seemed to be leaning towards an exchange offer up until last week. An exchange offer would have allowed [...]

Discount cigarette maker Vector Group recently announced plans to spin off most of the firm's real estate businesses, including one of the nation's largest brokerage firms, Douglas Elliman.Once the separation takes place on December 29, the real estate business will continue as Douglas Elliman (DOUG) and trade on the NYSE. As part of the transaction, investors [...]

3M this week announced plans to separate its food safety business through a tax-friendly combination with Neogen (NEOG), a company specializing in food and animal safety.While this transaction has garnered media attention, food safety only accounts for about 1% of 3M's net sales and will have minimal impact on the firm's overall earnings and payout ratio.Given the [...]

In the summer of 2020, Kimco Realty took the drastic step of suspending its dividend when the pandemic sent a severe and sudden shock to the REIT's cash flow while engendering an uncertain recovery.The move seemed prudent at the time for a retail REIT whose tenants mostly require steady foot traffic to generate enough income [...]

The onset of the pandemic in 2020 ignited a number of negative trends, including a dramatic decline in demand for senior housing, given the increased risks of COVID-19 for older generations.Senior housing residents began to move out of these facilities and into the homes of family members, where they believed they were less likely to [...]

This week, Realty Income completed the spin-off of substantially all of its office properties into the newly created Orion Office REIT (ONL), as announced earlier this year.Realty Income stockholders received one share of the Orion Office REIT for every ten shares of Realty Income stock held, with cash received in lieu of any fractional shares.The [...]

Yesterday, Compass Minerals surprised investors by cutting its dividend by nearly 80%. This drastic cut is part of a new direction in the company's capital allocation strategy to focus more on growing the business. This strategy shift is primarily driven by the firm's discovery of a significant and sustainable lithium resource identified at its solar [...]

Johnson & Johnson announced this morning its intention to separate its consumer health division, which accounts for roughly 16% of sales and includes iconic consumer brands like Band-Aid, Tylenol, and Listerine.The decision to break up the world's largest pharmaceutical conglomerate is rooted in the belief that its business units will have more significant growth opportunities [...]

Earlier this week IBM completed the spinoff of its infrastructure services business, which was named Kyndryl and began trading on Thursday under the ticker symbol KD. IBM investors received 1 KD share for every 5 IBM shares held. Kyndryl shares are not worth much compared to IBM, representing less than 5% of the two firms' [...]

Lockheed Martin slumped about 12% on Tuesday following disappointing guidance. Based on the forecast Lockheed provided in August, analysts had expected the defense giant's sales to grow roughly 3% next year. Instead, the firm this week nudged its 2021 revenue guidance lower and now sees sales next year falling about 1.5%. Management then expects low single-digit [...]

Shares of telecommunications companies like Verizon have been under pressure this year following record spending in the C-Band spectrum auction.With fierce competition to be a leader in 5G capabilities, telecom companies proved willing to go deeper into debt to ensure they were not left behind with inferior networks.Earlier this year, we wrote a note on Verizon that [...]

Physicians Realty is a self-managed healthcare REIT with ownership in nearly 300 top-tier medical office buildings (MOB's) across 31 states.Since its founding in 2011, the REIT's portfolio has become more evenly balanced between properties located on campus with a hospital, an area it was far more concentrated in earlier on, and off-campus properties found closer [...]

International Paper completed the spin-off of its printing papers business on October 1 and, as expected, rebased its dividend on Tuesday to reflect the firm's lower cash flow. The dividend was reduced by about 10% (better than management's original estimate of a 15% to 20% cut). With the spin-off complete and the rebased dividend in place, we are upgrading [...]