MRA Blog

Resilient and overvalued. That is certainly one way to describe the Growth factor of the US stock market. With companies like Nvidia, Autodesk, Visa and Dexcom all trading at greater than 15x price to sales, a reasonable investor may consider the landscape a touch overextended. If you have invested solely in pure value equities, the past decade or more has been a difficult period for your portfolio. Value has steadily underperformed Growth across all market caps since mid-year 2007. However, within the Value category there are both qualitative and style factors that deserve our consideration. Factors that crossover into strong Growth names and remain respectful of traditional Value metrics. We believe these strategies satisfy modest levels of risk appetite and have performed well on both a relative and absolute basis.

Two weeks ago, Neil, Sonnet, Jeff and I had the pleasure of attending Commonwealth National conference in Denver. Here are some take-aways from the conference I’d like to share with you.  

Hello Friends, Welcome to Summer.  This weekend should continue our streak of 90-degree weather after a cool and wet Spring. The stock market has been heating up as well, with the S & P 500 up over 20% year to date after losing just over 4% last year.  This strong performance, which caps off a ten-year period of 14 % + annualized returns, naturally has people wondering if the end is near and a bear market imminent.

Advisors Rachel Roney and Sonnet Loftus CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER ™ professional attended the 2019 Investment News Women to Watch awards luncheon dedicated to honoring outstanding women in the financial services industry. InvestmentNews is the go-to news source for financial advisors.

Dear Friends & Clients, Welcome to the beginning of March.  Here in Syracuse where the winters are long and bitter, we always welcome the dawn of Spring!  We want to update all of you on our RIA-Broker Dealer change to Commonwealth Financial.  After 27 years with Cadaret, Grant we made the difficult but highly considered decision to make the move to Commonwealth.

Michael Roberts Summer BBQ was a big success! We had a great crowd of over 130 people come out last Thursday to help us celebrate summer and raise awareness and money for Clear Path for Veterans, a local charity that helps to support the journey home for veterans through programs, events, friends family and more. Thank you so much to those who attended. We are proud to announce that we raised over $2600 to support this worthy cause.  It is important to us at Michael Roberts associates to partner with charitable causes to give back to our community. 

Tales of people donating their time, talents and money to help others, especially during this time of year are plentiful. I am moved to hear about so many of our clients and affiliates who are deeply involved with their communities. From volunteering in schools, sitting on boards of community organizations, working to support veteran’s groups, like our local Clear Path for Veteran’s, volunteering with Doctors without Borders, volunteering at places of worship, visiting shut-ins at retirement homes, going on service or mission trips to other countries… the list is long.

I was interviewed for an upcoming article in the CNY 55 Plus Magazine. While the topic was focused on the financial and legal effects of marrying later in life (55+), the discussion brought up a lot of great points that are applicable no matter your age.

Welcome to Autumn! We enter the fall season following the most beautiful summer I remember in my 25 years in Syracuse. It was also a strong period for the stock market with the S&P 500 up a healthy 6.74% through September 15th. The top performing sectors were Utilities and Energy, while Financial Services and Healthcare lagged behind. The portion of the Broad Market which Morningstar classifies as US Value, increased by 10.21% while US Growth Stocks increased by only 2.19%. In general terms “Value Stocks” are characterized by solid fundamentals based on analysis of price earnings ratio, yield and other factors. Growth Stocks are characterized by higher earnings growth rates, higher price earnings multiples, and typically lower dividend yields. The top 5 positions in Morningstar’s Value Index are Exxon Mobile, AT&T, J.P. Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Proctor and Gamble. The top 5 positions in their Growth Index are Amazon, Facebook, Alphabet (Google), Home Depot and Comcast. 1

On July 21st, MRA president Neil Hoyt and the rest of the MRA staff welcomed 140 guests to the Greenwood Winery in E. Syracuse for their annual Summer Celebration. Clients, colleagues, and members of the business community listened as US Airman Jamie Biviano spoke about her work at Clear Path for Veterans followed by Neil sharing ‘a few words’ on investing. This post expands on his presentation – we hope you enjoy reading it.