Mastercard Inc

NYSE:MA

Backtesting is a powerful tool that simulates how a particular strategy or model would have performed on historical data. This process allows investors to evaluate the effectiveness of investment decisions based on past market data without risking actual capital.

1. Select Valuation Methods: Choose the valuation methods you believe best represent the true value of the stocks you're interested in.

2. Define Trading Criteria: Specify the buy/sell conditions based on the stock's valuation relative to its market price.

3. Run the Backtest: Initiate the process to see how your strategy would have performed historically.

4. Analyze Results: Review the outcomes to refine your investment strategies and improve future decision-making.

By leveraging historical data, backtesting provides a window into how investment strategies might perform under similar market conditions, offering invaluable insights for future investments.

Note: Past results don't guarantee future performance.

Free Cash Flow (FCF) is the money a company has left over after it pays for all its expenses and any investments it needs to make to keep the company running smoothly.

Think of it like your personal budget at home: after you pay for your necessities, like rent and groceries, and set aside money for future needs, like saving for a car or home repairs, the cash you have left is what you're free to spend or save as you wish.

It's a sign of a company's health and its ability to do things like grow its business, pay dividends to shareholders, or reduce debt.

Flexibility: Companies with more FCF can make big moves without having to borrow money or ask for more investment, giving them the freedom to grow or tackle new projects on their terms.

Rewards for Investors: When a company has extra cash, it can decide to give some back to its investors through dividends or by buying back shares, which can increase the value of the remaining shares.

A Healthy Sign: Regularly having more cash coming in than going out shows that a company is doing well, making smart decisions, and earning more than it spends.

Earnings call is a teleconference or webcast where a public company discusses its financial results for a given reporting period, such as a quarter or a fiscal year. During the call, company executives, including the CEO and CFO, present key financial data, insights into the company's performance, and often provide guidance about future expectations. These calls are open to the public, including shareholders, analysts, and prospective investors, allowing them to ask questions and gain deeper insights directly from the company’s leadership.

This is a critical event for investors as it provides a transparent view of the company’s health and strategic direction, often influencing stock prices based on the performance and future outlook presented. Earnings calls are typically scheduled in advance and can be accessed through the company’s investor relations website.

Shareholder Yield is an integrated metric that represents the total returns a company delivers to its shareholders, including dividends, share buybacks, and debt reduction. It offers a holistic view of a company's capital return strategies, going beyond simple dividend yields to encompass all forms of shareholder returns.

The calculation of Shareholder Yield involves summing the dividend yield, buyback yield, and debt paydown yield:

• Dividend Yield is calculated by dividing the annual dividends per share by the stock price per share.

• Buyback Yield reflects the decrease in shares outstanding, showing how much a company is investing in repurchasing its shares.

• Debt Paydown Yield measures the reduction of debt in relation to the company’s market capitalization, highlighting efforts to reduce financial liabilities.

High Shareholder Yield is often associated with superior long-term performance in the stock market, making it a crucial measure for investors seeking stocks that consistently deliver high returns through dividends, buybacks, and effective debt management. This metric highlights the importance of looking beyond traditional dividend yields to consider how companies return capital to shareholders in other ways, enhancing overall investment analysis.

Buyback Yield measures how much a company reduces its outstanding shares through repurchases, expressed as a percentage. It is calculated by taking the decrease in shares outstanding during a period, dividing it by the total shares at the beginning of that period, and then converting this figure into a percentage.

This metric is crucial for calculating Shareholder Yield as it directly reflects the company’s efforts to return value to shareholders. By reducing the number of shares, buybacks can increase earnings per share and potentially boost the stock's price. Including Buyback Yield provides a fuller understanding of how capital is used to enhance shareholder returns, alongside dividends and debt reduction.

Debt Paydown Yield measures the amount of debt a company repays within a specific period, shown as a percentage of its market capitalization. It is calculated by taking the reduction in total debt from the beginning to the end of the period, dividing this amount by the company's market capitalization at the start of the period, and then expressing the result as a percentage.

This metric is important for calculating Shareholder Yield because it indicates how the company is using its capital to decrease financial liabilities, which can strengthen its financial health and potentially enhance shareholder value. Including Debt Paydown Yield in the Shareholder Yield calculation gives investors insight into the company's commitment to reducing debt alongside returning value through dividends and buybacks.

Insiders might sell their shares for any number of reasons, but they buy them for only one: they think the price will rise.

Peter Lynch

It isn't a coincidence that corporate executives seem to always buy at the right times. After all, they have access to every bit of company information you could ever want. However, the fact that company executives have unique insights doesn't mean that individual investors are always left in the dark. Insider trading data is out there for all who want to use it.