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Data Update 5 for 2023: The Earnings Test

Musings on Markets

During the course of the year, investors also rediscovered that the essence of business is not growing revenues or adding users, but making profits from that growth. In this post, I will focus on trend lines in profitability at companies in 2022, with the intent of addressing multiple questions.

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Data Update 7 for 2023: Dividends, Buybacks and Cash Flows

Musings on Markets

In the second, Warren Buffet used some heated language to describe those who opposed buybacks, calling them “economic illiterates” and “silver tongued demagogues “. As growth moderates and profitability improves, free cash flows to equity will turn positive, giving these firms the capacity to return cash.

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Data Update 1 for 2021: A (Data) Look Back at a Most Forgettable Year (2020)!

Musings on Markets

While the universe of companies is diverse, with approximately half of all firms from emerging markets, it is more concentrated in market capitalization, with the US accounting for 40% of global market capitalization at the start of the year.