regional & sector strategy: monthly update · regional & sector strategy: monthly update...

Regional & Sector Strategy: Monthly Update

Crosscurrents — Although there are no material changes to our regional or sector recommendations this month, there have been some noteworthy crosscurrents.

Regional Crosscurrents — Improved optimism about earnings in Europe ex. the U.K. is offset by valuations that are still relatively unattractive, so that the region remains Underweight.

Sector Crosscurrents — Similarly, the Underweight Energy sector has also seen some improvement in earnings optimism, but that has not been enough to offset the sector’s relatively unattractive valuation.

Food for Thought — The shifting of GICS weights in the MSCI ACWI benchmark has implications for the materiality of specific ESG issues in sector strategy at any given point in time.

©Jan S./Bigstock

Michael Geraghty Global Markets Strategist 212-874-7400

Figure 1: Regional Rankings Figure 2: Sector Rankings

Source: Cornerstone Capital Group Source: Cornerstone Capital Group

Global Markets Strategy June 2, 2015

mailto:[email protected]

2 Please see important disclosures at the back of this report.

Regional and Sector Strategy: Monthly Update

This month there are no changes to the recommendations in either our regional

or sector strategy models. Our previous regional and sector recommendations

were published in the May 2015 edition of the Cornerstone Capital Regional and

Sector Strategy: Monthly Update.

Despite the fact that there are no material changes to our regional or sector

recommendations, there have been some noteworthy crosscurrents in the past

month:

Improved optimism about earnings in Europe ex. the U.K. is offset by

valuations that are still relatively unattractive, so that the region remains

Underweight.

Similarly, the Underweight Energy sector has also seen some improvement in

earnings optimism, but that has not been enough to offset the sector’s

relatively unattractive valuation.

Regional Strategy Update

We have updated the inputs to the Cornerstone Capital Regional Strategy Model

in which we rank eight regions/major economies that are included in the MSCI

All Country World Index (ACWI). In terms of valuations, Figure 3 illustrates that

the valuation of the Europe ex. the U.K. region remains relatively unattractive.

Figure 3: Regional Valuations (50% of Aggregate Weight) Arrows Indicate Change vs. Last Month

Source: Cornerstone Capital Group

Up = More Expensive Down = Less Expensive

http://cornerstonecapinc.com/2015/05/regional-and-sector-strategy-may-update/

http://cornerstonecapinc.com/2015/05/regional-and-sector-strategy-may-update/


Figure 4 illustrates that earnings momentum in the Europe ex. the U.K. region

improved again, and has been steadily trending upward in recent months.

Figure 4: Earnings Momentum (33% of Earnings Weight) Arrows Indicate Change vs. Last Month


Similarly, Figure 5 illustrates that the earnings revisions trends in the Europe ex.

the U.K. region were modestly positive i.e., upgrades slightly exceeded

downgrades.

Figure 5: Earnings Revisions (33% of Earnings Weight)



Figure 6 illustrates free cash flow margins for the eight regions, both current and

historical.

Figure 6: Free Cash Flow Margins (15-20% of Earnings Weight)

Source: Cornerstone Capital Inc.

Figure 7 illustrates changes in shares outstanding by region over the past twelve

months, with issuance being considered “negative” (i.e., dilutive), and buybacks

being regarded as positive for shareholders.

Figure 7: Net Share Issuance (15-20% of Earnings Weight)



Figure 8 summarizes the current regional recommendations and Figure 9

illustrates the dispersion of the regional scores.

Figure 8: Regional Recommendations


Figure 9: Ranking Regions by Weighting Valuation, Earnings, Environmental and Governance Scores



Sector Strategy Update

We have updated the inputs to the Cornerstone Capital Sector Strategy Model in

which we rank the ten GICs in the MSCI ACWI.

Figure 10 illustrates that the relative valuation of the Energy sector became

somewhat less attractive last month.

Figure 10: Sector Valuations (20% of Aggregate Weight) Arrows Indicate Change vs. Last Month


Figure 11 illustrates a continued rebound in the Energy sector’s expected

earnings momentum (as well as further deterioration in the earnings momentum

of the Industrials sector, which we downgraded to Underweight last month).

However, relative to other sectors — most notably Health Care, Information

Technology, Financials — the overall earnings momentum of the Energy sector is

still very poor.

Figure 11: Earnings Momentum (33% of Earnings Weight) Arrows Indicate Change vs. Last Month


Up = More Expensive Down = Less Expensive


Figure 12 shows that the Energy sector’s earnings estimate revisions were

sharply positive i.e., upward revisions by far outpaced downward revisions.

Figure 12: Earnings Revisions (25% of Earnings Weight)


Figure 13 illustrates free cash flow margins for the sectors, both current and

historical.

Figure 13: Free Cash Flow Margins (25% of Earnings Weight)



Figure 14 illustrates change in shares outstanding by sector over the past twelve

months, with issuance being considered “negative” (i.e., dilutive), and buybacks

being regarded as positive for shareholders. Utilities, an Underweight sector, has

experienced a significant amount of share issuance over the last twelve months.

A possible explanation for this is heavy capital spending on new equipment — from power plants to pollution-control devices.

Figure 14: Net Share Issuance = 15-20% of Earnings Weight


Figure 15 summarizes the current sector recommendations.

Figure 15: Sector Recommendations



Figure 16 illustrates the dispersion of the sector scores.

Figure 16: Ranking Sectors by Weighting Valuation, Earnings and ESG Scores


Combining the Regional and Sector Models

Combining our regional and sector models, Figure 17 illustrates sector Over- and

Underweights by region.

We are Overweight Health Care in North America, the U.K. and Europe ex U.K.

We are Overweight Information Technology in Emerging Asia, Japan and

North America.

We are Underweight or Neutral Energy, Materials and Industrials in the

majority of regions.


Figure 17: Combining the Regional and Sector Models



Food for Thought: ESG in Sector Strategy —

What’s Material?

In previous reports, we looked at the investment significance of certain

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors specifically as they related to

sector strategy:

The Economics of Environmental Issues in Sector Strategy, October 20, 2014.

We studied the implications of a potential increase in key environmental

costs for ten industry sectors.

The Social Costs of Business: Implications for Sector Strategy, December 16,

2014. Utilizing a number of metrics — (i) costs of community support; (ii)

costs of “cheap” labor; (iii) costs of committed and safe employees; (iv) costs

of attracting and retaining customers — we estimated the “social costs of

business” for the ten sectors in the MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI).

We have continued to research these issues and plan to publish some updated

analysis in the very near future. An important — albeit likely self-evident —

observation is that the shifting of GICS weights in the MSCI ACWI benchmark has

implications for the materiality of specific ESG issues in sector strategy at any given

point in time. Figure 18 illustrates the shifting weights of the 10 GICS in the MSCI

ACWI over the past 20 years.

Figure 18: Sector Weights in MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI)* *2015 through April 30, 2015

Source: MSCI Inc.

http://cornerstonecapinc.com/2014/10/the-economics-of-environmental-issues-in-sector-strategy-2/

http://cornerstonecapinc.com/2014/12/the-social-costs-of-business-implications-for-sector-strategy/


More specifically, Figure 19 illustrates that the weighting of the Materials sector

halved between 1995 (10%) and 2015 (5%), while the weighting of the

Information Technology sector doubled in the same period (from 7% to 14%). In

our October 2014 report The Economics of Environmental Issues in Sector

Strategy we highlighted that, of the 10 GICS, the Materials sector is most exposed to environmental costs, while the Information Technology sector is least exposed.

Figure 19: Sector Weights in MSCI All Country World Index (ACWI)* *2015 through April 30, 2015

Source: MSCI Inc.

As our forthcoming analysis will discuss, the above would suggest (among other

things) that the incorporation of ESG issues in sector strategy should be dynamic,

and that a frequent reassessment should be undertaken of the current materiality of various non-traditional metrics.




Appendix 1: Summary Statistics

Figure 20: Global Equity Markets Data

Source: Cornerstone Capital Group, Bloomberg


Michael Geraghty is the Global Markets Strategist for Cornerstone Capital Group. He has over three decades of experience in the financial services industry including working as an investment strategist at UBS and Citi.

[email protected]

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regional & sector strategy: monthly update · regional & sector strategy: monthly update...

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