We founded Bondsavvy to empower individual investors. A key part of this is regularly updating our corporate bond recommendations with the latest issuer financials, bond yields, and bond pricing information. We use this analysis to provide updated buy/sell/hold corporate bond recommendations throughout the year, including during quarterly editions of The Super Bondcast.
The March 7, 2024 Super Bondcast
Bondsavvy updated its 65 corporate bond recommendations Thursday, March 7, 2024 during The Super Bondcast, an exclusive interactive investment webinar for Bondsavvy subscribers. This presentation followed nearly all of our issuing companies having recently reported Q4 earnings.
Below are answers to FAQs for this investment webinar.
Owning individual corporate bonds enables investors to lock in yields for a specific time period, something that is not possible with bond funds, bond ETFs, and money market funds such as Vanguard VMFXX. They can also offer opportunities for capital appreciation, a big focus of our investment strategy.
We have shown how a select portfolio of individual bonds can achieve higher investment returns than the mega bond funds.
I Missed the March 7 Super Bondcast. What Should I Do?
Bondsavvy records all subscriber webcasts and posts them in the Bondsavvy subscriber area.
Subscribe to Bondsavvy to view all of our updated bond recommendations, including the March 7 Super Bondcast, which reviews the financial analysis and investment rationale for each of our updated 65 corporate bond recommendations.
Why Should I Subscribe to Bondsavvy and See the 65 Bond Recommendation Updates?
Bondsavvy updates its corporate bond recommendations after companies report quarterly results. During The Super Bondcast, we provide our subscribers in-depth analysis of our issuers' most recent financial performance; current yield and pricing metrics; and the investment rationale for each recommended bond.
Corporate bond ratings from Moody's and S&P are not regularly updated and do not speak to whether a bond is a good investment. They are not timely and, often times, offer little value to investors. Bondsavvy's recommendation updates fill this void and provide our subscribers the information they need to make successful corporate bond investments.
How Many Bonds Were Rated 'Buy' on March 7?
After our updates, we have 28 bonds rated 'buy.' We issued one sell recommendation. We will be further updating seven bonds upon their issuing companies reporting new quarterly financials. The remaining bonds are rated 'hold.'
What Do You Cover During The Super Bondcast Investment Webinar?
We present our bond recommendation updates each quarter during The Super Bondcast, an exclusive subscriber webcast hosted on Zoom. These update presentations include four sections:
- Overarching investment themes and economic conditions
- Bond issuer financial performance updates
- Buy/sell/hold recommendation updates for each bond
- Written reviews of issuer financial performance
We discuss each of these sections -- and provide sample PowerPoint slides -- below:
Section 1: Overarching Investment Themes and Economic Conditions
Before diving into the financial performance of our issuing companies, we need to understand the overall corporate bond investment landscape. We therefore kick off each edition of The Super Bondcast with a brief discussion on recent bond yield trends, Fed action, the economy, and other factors we expect to impact the performance of our corporate bond recommendations.
Figure 1 shows a slide from the July 13, 2023 Super Bondcast, where we discussed how US Treasury yields had been trending, some mixed financial performance of certain issuers, and the regulatory environment that was impacting merger-and-acquisition activity.
Bondsavvy founder and fixed income expert Steve Shaw leads each Super Bondcast investment webinar and provides a voice-over for each presentation slide.
Figure 1: Slide from Previous Super Bondcast on Overarching Investment Themes
Section 2: Bond Issuer Financial Performance Update
After reviewing the overarching bond investment themes, we discuss the recent summary financial performance of our issuing companies. We group the issuing companies across pick dates and then discuss revenue and EBITDA growth, EBITDA margins, and any changes in bond ratings.
While we believe bond rating methodologies are generally flawed, changes in bond ratings can impact bond prices. They also provide a third-party opinion on a bond issuer's creditworthiness that is separate from the corporate bond research Bondsavvy provides its subscribers.
As shown in Figure 2, Bondsavvy's corporate bond recommendations include bonds with both investment grade and high yield bond ratings and a range of issuing company sizes.
Figure 2: Summary Financial Performance Slide from Previous Super Bondcast
The slide represented in Figure 2 covered the financial performance of 12 issuing companies from our November 16, 2022, March 8, 2023, and June 22, 2023 bond pick dates. The one outlier, which showed a drastic drop in Q1 2023 EBITDA, was a pulp manufacturer, Mercer International. Given this company's weak Q1 2023 financial performance, on July 13, 2023, we issued a sell recommendation on the Mercer bond we recommended March 8, 2023.
View our corporate bond returns page to see the performance of previous and current Bondsavvy corporate bond recommendations.
Bondsavvy Subscriber Benefit
Approximately 9,000 individual corporate bonds are available for online investing each day. Our corporate bond recommendations cut through the clutter to identify bonds that offer high coupons and upside potential relative to their risk.Get Started
Section 3: New Buy/Sell/Hold Ratings for Each Bond Recommendation
Our bond recommendations are a big step up from traditional Wall Street fixed income research, as they are at the individual bond, or CUSIP, level. Most corporate bond research is at the issuer level and simply deals with whether an issuer's creditworthiness is getting better or worse.
Our recommendations identify specific bonds we believe are good values and can outperform the leading corporate bond funds and ETFs
Figure 3 shows a slide from a previous Super Bondcast that reviewed key bond price and financial metrics, as well as the updated buy/sell/hold recommendations. We show the financial and bond price metrics on the pick date, as well as the day immediately before The Super Bondcast. This enables us to assess whether a corporate bond is a better or worse value than it was on the pick date and impacts whether a bond is a buy, sell, or hold.
Figure 3: Previous Super Bondcast Bond Pick Updates Slide
Section 4: Brief Written Reviews of Each Bond Issuer
Since The Super Bondcast investment webinar lasts only 60 minutes, we have limited time to spend on each recommendation. In cases when an issuer has reported weak financial results, we will typically spend additional time discussing such issuers at the beginning of The Super Bondcast.
We will typically end the webcast version of The Super Bondcast after Section 3. Then, after we post the recording of The Super Bondcast in the Bondsavvy subscriber area, we will complete written individual summaries for each bond recommendation.
These summaries will include details on an issuing company's financial performance, business trends, capital allocation, and upcoming debt maturities. They will also discuss forward guidance to the extent an issuing company provides it. We include these written financial updates in a PDF version of The Super Bondcast that we post in the Bondsavvy subscriber area.
Bondsavvy Subscriber Benefit
Our investment analysis puts our individual investor subscribers in control of their bond portfolios. We do this at a fraction of the cost of traditional financial advisors.Get Started
Figure 4 shows a sample slide that covered brief written updates on two of our issuing companies:
Figure 4: Individual Company Written Update Sample
Are These Quarterly Updates the only Time Bondsavvy's Picks Are Updated?
No. In addition to providing quarterly bond recommendation updates through The Super Bondcast investment webinar, we also regularly update our recommendations through the Bondsavvy corporate bond investment newsletter. We notify our subscribers of these updates via email and post a PDF of each update in the "Updates" tab of the Bondsavvy subscriber area.
These additional bond updates would cover things such as tender offers, exchange offers, merger-and-acquisition activity, significant changes in a bond price, or any recommendation change that occurs between editions of The Super Bondcast.
How Do I Gain Access to Live Bondsavvy Webinars?
In addition to the quarterly Super Bondcast, Bondsavvy hosts quarterly editions of The Bondcast, where we present new corporate bond recommendations. Read a preview of our best corporate bonds to buy 2024 investment webinar.
In advance of each Bondsavvy investment webinar, we email Bondsavvy subscribers Zoom details and post the Zoom information in the Bondsavvy subscriber area. Upon subscribing to Bondsavvy, you will gain immediate access to our current corporate bond recommendations and be the first to learn our new bond recommendations and recommendation updates.
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