We are halfway through our first year!
Months 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are available for review. This is an opportunity to learn our portfolio-building strategies step by step that, hopefully anyone will be able to follow. Our goal in this portfolio is to show our Members how to use slow, steady, simple options strategies to amass over $1M over 30 years by investing just $700/month ($252,000). If you can apply this discipline in your early working years – your retirement will be a breeze.
Our goal is to make 10% a year on our investments and, though it has only been 5 months – the portfolio is already up 19.3%. That’s a pace of 40% per year and, if we did that for 30 years, we’d have $728,433,713.90. No, I’m not kidding, you can do the math right here! Don’t expect to keep up that pace – we’ll have ups and downs along the way and this portfolio doesn’t attempt to time the market – it’s just off to a good start.
When we started the portfolio (Aug 25th), the S&P 500 was at 4,000 and now we’re at 4,155, which is only up 3.88%. That’s the magic of using options – even when you play them very conservatively.
As with all our PSW portfolios, the returns tend to accelerate as our positions mature but this is WAY ahead of expectations and certainly we shouldn’t expect to keep up this pace in a no-margin portfolio (but it’s kind of normal for our Members’ margin portfolios in positive years).
Last month, we filled out our AT&T (T) position, using $771.92 (we had a little cash left over from prior trades and dividends) and that left us with $61 and T just paid out an 0.278 dividend on Jan 9th for another $27.80, giving us $88.80 (very lucky in China) and we’re adding another $700 ($4,200 invested in total), giving us $788.80 to spend this month.
And, by the way, I know this seems a bit dull to you higher net-worth investors but you can be doing the same thing for your children or your grandchildren with $7,000 a month of $70,000 a month – the principle is exactly the same! Meanwhile, the idea of this is to create a portfolio that can help as many people as possible get on the road to a comfortable retirement by setting extremely realistic goals.
Before we add new positions, we need to look over our current positions to see if they need adjusting and all of them are nicely on track but NLY, who paid us a lovely 0.88 last month, are not complete. That’s because we originally had a lot more NLY shares but they did a reverse split and the shares are now expensive (for this small portfolio).
Ideally, we wanted to get to 100 shares so we could start selling options but buying 69 more shares will cost us $1,656 and then we could sell the 2025 $22 calls for $3 ($300) so $1,356 means we can cover that position in two weeks.
Our anticipated return on NLY after having spent net $2,051 on 100 shares would be 8 0.88 dividends ($88 x 8) for $704 and called away at $22 ($2,200) for a $149 profit on the shares would be $853 or 41.6% over 2 years, which is just fine, but let’s see if anything is better first.
CIM, which we already sold 2 short puts for, is $7.54 and pays 0.23/qtr so, if we were to buy 100 shares for $754 and sell 1 2025 $7 call for $1.25 ($125), that would be just net $629 and we expect 8 0.23 dividends ($184) and a profit of $71 if called away at $7 (lower than the stock is now!) for $255/629 = 40.5% again – darn!
Even worse, NLY and CIM are the same management team, so there’s no real advantage to either REIT. So I guess, we may as well go with the most boring possible thing and just use our $788.80 to buy 32 more shares of NLY for $24 ($768) and that will leave us with $20.80 towards next month, when we should be able to get to 100 shares and cover.
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- Buy 32 additional shares of NLY (63 total) for $24 ($768) ‘
The tie-breaker for me is adding another dividend stream and we already have 2 short CIM, which is our pledge to buy 200 shares at $5 ($1,000) in exchange for $320 we collected. Against the net $680 in buying power it cost us, those are a 47% return over 2 years.
Keep in mind that the outsized returns we are currently getting are from SOFI, which was not even $5 when we added it and now it’s $7.38 and our conservative goal was only $5. We spent net $205 on the $1,000 spread giving us $795 (387%) upside potential against our cash (the short puts required another $500 of our buying power). That spread is already net $485, representing 72% of the portfolio’s gains so far.
SOFI was a Trade of the Year Runner up and fit in this portfolio so we jumped on it on Dec 1st but we’re not ready to do too many options just yet. We will be after year two, when these original trades begin to cash out and we find ourselves with thousands to spend instead of hundreds.
Until then, we continue to grind our way to our first $Million$ – hopefully a lot sooner than 30 years!
Actually, at the pace we’re at now (40%), just over 10 years!
Andy/webinars. Good am. I haven’t seen the post for last week seminar, could you send a link? TIA
They take a while to process. They first go on the YouTube channel and then Eileen makes a post, which goes on the main page.
I’m talking about last week, haven’t seen it anywhere.
The 01/25 is out now on YT
Good Morning.
Phil / Hedging
I have more long SQQQ Jan 2025 40s than short SQQQ Jan 2025 90s. I can roll down 40s to 30 for $1.25. But, it’s not executing. How much maximum to pay for a roll?
Thanks.
Just keep in mind it’s insurance, so you’d better be making at least 3x what you are spending on the SQQQs if the market DOESN’T go lower (and the SQQQs expire worthless).
You have too many longs vs short calls and the short calls are a mile out so try this:
That means, realistically, the $10 roll is currently net $1.75.
Since you have more longs than shorts, it doesn’t hurt for you to sell some but maybe try asking for $12 for 1/10th of the $40 calls you own and offering $13 for 1/10 of the $30 calls you want to buy and see which one clears first. The way this market bounces around, they will probably both fill at some point.
Good morning!
Everything is Awesome today. The ECB raised rates 0.5%, which is keeping the Dollar down and they signaled another 0.5% in March. BOE is matching. ECB is only at 2.5%, that’s still their highest since 2008.
In a statement, the ECB said it would “stay the course in raising interest rates significantly.” The bank said it intends to raise rates by another half percentage point in March, and “will then evaluate the subsequent path of its monetary policy.”
That unexpectedly clear guidance suggests the ECB will be more aggressive than the Fed and Bank of England in raising rates over the coming months. Its decisions are likely to ricochet through financial markets, pushing up the value of the euro and weighing on eurozone bond prices.
The ECB started raising rates later and more cautiously than other central banks, notably the Fed. ECB President Christine Lagarde emphasized in December that the bank had more ground still to cover than the Fed.
Eurozone inflation declined to 8.5% last month, down from a peak of 10.6% in October but above the U.S. inflation rate of 6.5% in December. A mild European winter and high gas-storage levels have helped to reduce energy prices in Europe. Meanwhile, global supply bottlenecks have eased and the euro has surged to about $1.10 from less than $1 over the past three months, helping to reduce the price of imported goods, including energy.
META knocked it out of the park (you’re welcome!) – we have 30 2025 $100/170 bull call spreads in the LTP that were only $80,175 as of yesterday’s close – wheee!!!! Last LTP Review I said:
If you thought $29,000 was a nice gain for 2 weeks, wait till you see what we get now! Congrats to all who played along.
No worries.
Not helping Oil
Dollar still wants to get back to 102.
I know I said this before but you absolutely nailed the call on Meta and TSLA. I am biting my lip and refusing to chase right now but it’s hard! I had a feeling that the traders would jump on one or two sentences from the Powell speech and run this up a little. SPWR is still in a nice play zone with earnings coming up.
Thanks CE. That’s the purpose of the Watch List – every once in a while we can get a quick visual of which stocks that we already like are low enough in their channels to take a whack at.
When a market blasts off like this, there’s still lagging stocks to play with. At the moment I see:
AKAM
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=akam%20\&p=w&s=y
BIG
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=big%20\&p=w&s=y
BGFV
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=bgfv%20\&p=w&s=y
BXMT (still cheap)
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=bxmt%20\&p=w&s=y
C (discussed the other day)
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=c%20\&p=w&s=y
CAKE
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=cake%20\&p=w&s=y
CIM (discussed above)
CMCSA
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=cmcsa%20\&p=w&s=y
DAL (about to get away)
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=dal%20\&p=w&s=y
DIS (popping back)
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=dis%20\&p=w&s=y
EBAY
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=ebay%20\&p=w&s=y
EXPE
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=expe%20\&p=w&s=y
F
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=f%20\&p=w&s=y
FF
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=ff%20\&p=w&s=y
GLW
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=glw%20\&p=w&s=y
GNRC
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=gnrc%20\&p=w&s=y
GOOGL
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=googl%20\&p=w&s=y
IEP
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=iep%20\&p=w&s=y
IP
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=ip%20\&p=w&s=y
IVZ
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=ivz%20\&p=w&s=y
JACK
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=jack%20\&p=w&s=y
JETS
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=jets%20\&p=w&s=y
JWN
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=jwn%20\&p=w&s=y
LABU
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=labu%20\&p=w&s=y
LEVI
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=levi%20\&p=w&s=y
LOGI
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=logi%20\&p=w&s=y
LOVE
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=love%20\&p=w&s=y
MIDD
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=midd%20\&p=w&s=y
MU
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=mu%20\&p=w&s=y
NFLX
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=nflx%20\&p=w&s=y
NRG
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=nrg%20\&p=w&s=y
NLY (from above)
OMI
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=omi%20\&p=w&s=y
PACW
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=pacw%20\&p=w&s=y
PARA (so tired of banging)
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=para%20\&p=w&s=y
PBR
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=pbr%20\&p=w&s=y
RAIL
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=rail%20\&p=w&s=y
RH
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=rh%20\&p=w&s=y
SONY
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=sony%20\&p=w&s=y
SPWR
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=spwr%20\&p=w&s=y
SWK
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=swk%20\&p=w&s=y
SYF
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=syf%20\&p=w&s=y
TGT
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=tgt%20\&p=w&s=y
THC
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=thc%20\&p=w&s=y
TNDM
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=tndm%20\&p=w&s=y
TM
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=tm%20\&p=w&s=y
TROX
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=trox%20\&p=w&s=y
TRVG
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=trvg%20\&p=w&s=y
TUP
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=tup%20\&p=w&s=y
TWO
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=two%20\&p=w&s=y
WBA
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=wba%20\&p=w&s=y
WHR (just had killer earnings)
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=whr%20\&p=w&s=y
Those are stocks we’ve had on our list since Thanksgiving and these are only the ones that haven’t blasted higher – yet. There’s always something on sale and we don’t play many small-caps so we can always load up on whichever stragglers catch our eye. Patience is the key…
Hi Phil
In the LTP we have HBI they decided to eliminate the dividend and are down 22%.
Do you think it is time to reconsider our position?
thanks
HBI – Well there is no love in that report. I want to see the CC but Revenues were in-line, they just have cost issues apparently. It’s still a good company at $3Bn with $300M in profits and they’ve been paying out $300M in dividends so I’m all in favor of using that money to make money instead of giving it back to disloyal shareholders.
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=hbi%20\&p=w&s=y
HBI is in the LTP and we have 160 2025 $7 calls we bought for $2.35 and we sold 60 2025 $10 puts for $3.86.
Obviously, we were hoping they popped up and we could cover but it’s the opposite and now the $7s are $1.70 and the puts are $3.60 so actually, we’re ahead on the puts.
There’s no reason here I’d get out of it. We could sell the $7 calls for $1.70 and roll to the $3 calls at $3.85 for net 0.45 and then we’d be in the $4 spread for $2.80, which is not ideal so I’d be more likely to do the roll first and wait for the next earnings but no hurry.
So, unless the CC sounds like a sinking ship, I probably will continue to have faith that people in the future will still wear underwear.
disloyal investors lol. I am going to dip back in after the dust settles-maded some last time it went down. Same with your call on LOVE
Phil since HBI stopped dividend do all the dividend funds have to sell it? If so probably need to wait a week or two to adjust the position
Oh for sure we have to wait. Yes, if you’re a dividend fund and they stop paying a dividend, you must sell.
My attitude for stocks like that is they LIKE to pay a dividend, they just can’t at the moment, so I like to buy them while everyone else is hating on them and then, when the dividend comes back – you are in excellent shape.
Productivity came in good at 3%, up from 1.4% last Q. Unit Labor Costs 1.1% down from 2% also good news. Factory Orders up 1.8% for Dec from -1.9% in Nov.
Still a big gap.
Big 150Bcf draw in /NG vs 91 last week.
sticking my head out on TSLA trying to sell 2 Feb 230 calls for 3.20 now 3.00
Morning Phil – What’s your target price for GOLD? I’m shooting for $22 and looking to sell my gains. Think it has more room to run?
I’m looking for Gold to get over $2,000 this year and at least $2,200 so yes, $22+ on GLD seems about right.
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=gold%20&ty=c&ta=1&p=d&s=l
Phil looks like BZH was a very nice play, ending Feb.
Nice pop!
https://charts2.finviz.com/chart.ashx?t=bzh%20&ty=c&ta=1&p=d&s=l
That trade was:
Phil – when are you looking to cover the naked MO calls in the LTP?
When they stop going up? We’ll see how they handle $50 first.
gold is weak. could be a sign of change.
or i guess just a sign the ECB will pay more interest and so gold goes down a little bit.
I see a lot of people buying a lot of Gold – possibly just nerves with all the talk of economic collapse but interesting how it’s holding up against BTC as that recovers.
Sign of the Dollar coming up from 100.8 post Fed to 101.7 now.
that’s what i meant in first comment, maybe dollar is about to start getting up off its butt.
one would think dollar would be getting clobbered again today with the ECB raising.
They are still behind us and we’re not done raising. As I said yesterday, Forex traders tend to be smarter than equity traders.
Phil US interest rates before 2008 financial crisis was 5.25. now 4.25 and maybe increased to 4.5. Also the housing market is much higher. do you think that this can cause another crisis maybe just taking its time. UK rates is 4%. it was 5.25 in 2006. Although house prices havent fallen much, there is less transaction. is it not just a matter of time, that the house prices will fall and cause another financial crisis.
The biggest problem in housing now is most people have 3% mortgages and now mortgages are 6% so, if someone sells a house they owe $500,000 on at 3%, they are paying $2,108 and if they move to a house where they will owe $500,000 at 6%, that’s $2,998. Most people aren’t looking to increase their payments when they move so people are “stuck” in the homes they have with the mortgage they have and that’s diminishing the availability of homes and driving up the prices of the few that are available.
Overall, people buy a mortgage, not a house. If they can only afford $2,100 a month, then they can only borrow $350,000 at 6% and nobody wants to trade down so stuck – or the price of homes has to drop 15% to equalize with the higher rates.
Again, this is what happens when you have inflation and no raises which is what the Fed is trying to accomplish.
ouch. i’m getting short squeezed.
Hi Phil, listened to webinar yesterday and read into min wage hikes in CA. The problem I see is that if they hike wages the companies will switch to robots.
https://www.ndtv.com/feature/in-this-texas-mcdonalds-robots-will-serve-you-meals-3631468
I have bought into PRST for that reason and gained 39% this year. They don’t have options, are low volume, and are a risky recent IPO featured on TD. I have been trying to find other companies that are public, but it seems most are funded by private investors. Have you heard of any?
hi, i don’t know if this helps you, but I remember Dan Loeb from Third Point buying into some Japanese automation company several years ago, and I remember reading there are some robotic automation companies in Japan; but I have zero specifics other than that. but maybe google Japan and find out what’s up over there.
https://www.bloomberg.com/professional/blog/dan-loebs-plot-pry-open-japans-secretive-robot-maker/
Wow. Awesome feedback. I have a new watchlist. Thank you!
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/6954.T?p=6954.T&.tsrc=fin-srch
https://www.nanalyze.com/2017/10/20-japanese-stocks-robotics/
FANUY – huge company. Factory automation.
Some jobs will go to robots just like so many jobs went to machines over the last 100 years – it doesn’t hurt the economy or the workers that much – IF you train them to do other work.
In the long-run, we’ll have to rethink the whole idea of work and capitalism. One day we’ll be able to puts one button to get everything done – should the guy that pushes the button be the only person who gets paid?
Check out this site, they are good for pre-market ideas:
https://explodingtopics.com/blog/robotics-startups
It’s a bit early to start jumping into this stuff. Things look good and promising but then fizzle out. We have a tendency to look at robots like Sofia and think “Version 5 will be amazing” but then it turns out Version 2 was fundamentally flawed and they never get to 3, let alone 5.
IRBT, ISRG, RBOT, RWLK, KITT, ASXC, NOVT, AVAV, GMED, OMCL are companies to keep an eye on.
Rejected at 4,200.
So I’d call that a 200-point run (from 4,000) so retraces would be 40-points to 4,160 (weak) and 4,120 (strong). We’ll see what lasts into the weekend.
For the Nas, it was 13,000 from 12,000 – hopefully the math is obvious.
Oil gaining no ground at $75.87 and neither is /NG at $2.486.
Speaking of timing the markets:
• The Shipping Industry Is Getting a Slew of New Vessels—Right as Demand Cools: Carriers plowed pandemic profits into a fleet of bigger cargo vessels. They’re arriving just as trade growth is softening. (Businessweek)
• The Forgotten Lessons of 2008: Seth Klarman. Seth Klarman outlines the lessons that investors were quick to forget only two years following one of the greatest financial meltdowns in modern history. (Investment Talk)
• #EUROBOOM European stock markets have further to rally, argues GS (FT)
• Short Sellers Feel the Pain in Stock Market’s 2023 Rally: Highly shorted shares are beating the S&P 500 this year, and short sellers are down by $81 billion. (Wall Street Journal)
• Stock, Bond and Crypto Investors Call Fed’s Bluff on Interest Rates: Many are skeptical as central bank says battle against inflation isn’t over. (Wall Street Journal)
• The Private Assets Insurance Companies Want in 2023: In recent years, insurers have been swapping public assets for private ones. Higher interest rates aren’t reversing that trend — just changing it. (Institutional Investor)
The Private Markets Valuation Debate Isn’t Settled Yet: The Miami conference circuit was abuzz with valuation chatter as investors weigh the pros and cons. (Institutional Investor)
• Wall Street Is Losing Out to Amateur Buyers in the Housing Slump: Big money spent a fortune snapping up homes. Now, regular folk are outsmarting the pros. (Bloomberg)
• How Extreme Bets Fueled an $11.4 Billion Fortune: A look inside BlueCrest reveals Michael Platt’s many acts — including outsize returns and some harrowing losses. (Bloomberg)
• When Private Equity Came for the Toddler Gyms: The same playbook that has notched high returns acquiring things like foreclosed homes and highway rest stops is being tested by a family-oriented franchise. (New York Times)
• This group is sharpening the GOP attack on ‘woke’ Wall Street: Consumers’ Research, bolstered by millions in undisclosed donations, targets investment firms and their evaluation of climate risks (Washington Post)
• Passwordless Authentication: What It Is and Why You Need It ASAP. The cybersecurity industry has a vision for a more secure future—one that involves getting rid of passwords. (PC Magazine)
• Americans Are Gobbling Up Takeout Food. Restaurants Bet That Won’t Change. America’s biggest chains test digital-only restaurants and more drive-throughs, gambling that heightened consumer demand for food to go will last well beyond the pandemic. (Wall Street Journal)
• In pursuit of decent coffee: No great stagnation in home espresso. (Works In Progress)
• The Junkification of Amazon: Why does it feel like the company is making itself worse? (New York Magazine) see also How Amazon Became Ordinary: I still use Amazon a great deal, but much less than I did; I no longer assume Amazon has the lowest price, often compare porices via Google shopping. This is a major shift in consumer behavior. (The Big Picture)
Wow, I found another use for OpenAI:
I said:
Please summarize the following earnings call: “Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Hanesbrands quarterly investor conference call and webcast. We’re pleased to be here today to provide an update on our progress after the fourth quarter of 2022. Hopefully, everyone has had a chance to review the news release we issued earlier today. The news release, updated FAQ document and the replay of this call can be found in the Investors section of our hanes.com website.
On the call today, we may make forward-looking statements either in our prepared remarks or in the associated question-and-answer session. These statements are based on current expectations or beliefs and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. These risks include those related to current macroeconomic condition, consumer demand dynamics, the inflationary environment, cybersecurity and our previously disclosed ransomware incident and any on-going impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. These risks also include those detailed in our various filings with the SEC, which may be found on our website as well as in our news releases. The company does not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking statements, which speak only to the time at which they are made.
Unless otherwise noted, today’s references to our consolidated financial results and guidance exclude all restructuring and other action-related charges and speak to continuing operations. Additional information, including a reconciliation of these and other non-GAAP performance measures to GAAP, can be found in today’s news release. Any references to 2019 reflects rebase 2019 results consistent with prior disclosures and can be found in our investor relations website.
With me on the call today are Steve Bratspies, our Chief Executive Officer; Michael Dastugue, our Chief Financial Officer and Scott Lewis, our Chief Accounting Officer. For today’s call, Steve and Michael will provide some brief remarks, and then we’ll open it up to your questions.
I’ll now turn the call over to Steve.
Steve Bratspies
Thank you TC. Good morning everyone, and welcome. For the quarter, Hanesbrands delivered sales that were above the high end of our forecast and adjusted operating profit and earnings per share that were essentially at the midpoint of our range. I’d like to start by thanking all of our associates around the world. The Global operating environment has been anything but easy over the last three years.
However, despite the significant volatility and uncertainty through their dedication and hard work, we’ve been able to deliver for our consumers, serve our retail partners, and continue to progress on our full potential plan. I’m most grateful and proud of their tremendous efforts.
While I’m pleased we delivered on our guidance under difficult operating conditions, we expect the macro economic challenges impacting consumer demand and the lingering pressure from inflation to continue in 2023, particularly in the first half. Consistent with the mind-set we’ve adopted since my first day, we’re not standing still. We’ll continue a proactive approach, remain agile and continue to adapt. Focusing on the things we can control and taking action allows us to manage their short-term challenges, while at the same time continue to implement our long-term transformation strategy.
To that end, there are three important topics I’d like to discuss today. First, the near term actions we’re taking toward reducing our leverage and strengthening our balance sheet. Second, the path to higher margins and operating cash flows as the year unfolds, including actions to mitigate near term macro related challenges. And third, an update on the implementation and progress of our full potential plan.
Let me walk you through each of these beginning with our strategic actions to strengthen the long-term financial foundation of the company. Today, we announced we’re shifting our capital allocation strategy, eliminating the dividend and committing to reducing debt. To be clear, investing in the business and our full potential growth plan remains the priority for capital allocation. And we believe we are well positioned to fund these investments through operating cash flow.
What’s changing is the allocation of our free cash flow, which will now fully direct toward accelerating debt reduction. This decision was not made lightly. And we believe that a meaningful reduction in our debt will drive significantly higher shareholder returns long-term.
We also updated our credit facility management to drive greater near term flexibility, given the uncertain macroeconomic environment. Michael will discuss this further in his section. In addition to these actions, we expect to refinance our 2024 maturities in the first quarter of this year, subject to market conditions.
Turning to margins and cash flow, we see the path to higher margins and operating cash flow as the year unfolds. The lower cost inventory we’re currently producing should begin to hit our P&L in the second half, particularly in the fourth quarter. We’ll anniversary last years’ time out costs, and we’re well positioned to benefit from the actions we’re taking to help mitigate the near term macro related challenges.
Looking at our mitigation actions, last year we set an aggressive target to reduce our inventory units by the end of 2022, which we accomplished. This created a short term drag on second half gross margins as we took time out in our manufacturing facilities. However, by taking this action, we believe we’re well positioned to release working capital and drive operating cash flow this year.
We also began and expanded upon a number of cost savings initiatives, including exiting unproductive facilities, consolidating sourcing vendors, and aggressively managing SG&A. Looking to 2023 we’re building on these initiatives with additional cost reductions as well as prudent investment management.
We reduced corporate headcount in January. We’re expanding our savings actions across our procurement operations, including contract renegotiations, and we’re strategically managing our investments to align with the current macro environment, just to name a few.
We believe the combination of these actions positions us to generate approximately $500 million in operating cash flow in 2023, to exit the year with a meaningfully higher run rate for both gross and operating margins, and to operate more efficiently, which unlocks long term growth.
Lastly, I’d like to touch on our full potential plan. Our long-term strategy is fundamentally unchanged. The plan we are executing is right, and our long-term financial targets remain. However, given the realities of the near-term, macroeconomic and consumer demand environment, our timetable has shifted to the end of 2026.
Though the timeline has shifted, we’re confident in our ability to deliver $8 billion of sales, and he made 14% operating margin. Our confidence is reinforced by the improvements we’ve made in the way our business operates. We’ve added new capabilities across the organization and exited non-strategic businesses. We’ve enhanced our inventory and demand planning processes as well as streamlined our innovation process and innerware, which began to bear fruit with the launch of our Hanes originals product.
We’ve improved the go-forward efficiency and effectiveness of our supply chain. We reduce global skews by 45% since 2019, as well as exited unproductive facilities. We’re consolidating distribution centers, and we’re generating high single digit savings rates in our sourcing and procurement operations. Plus, we’re continuing our technology investments to improve our data analytics, drive global integration, efficiency, and ultimately lower costs. We’ve also changed leadership and our global activewear business, the new team is moving fast. They’re streamlining the operating model, including global coordination of product design and merchandising, increased speed to market and portfolio simplification.
This in turn is expected to drive a more focused global product and channel segmentation strategy that provides greater clarity to retailers and consumers as well as improves the long-term health of both the Champion and Hanes activewear brands. It’s also expected to build the right foundation to drive revenue and margin growth well beyond the timeline of our full potential plan.
And it said:
You could make a nice living on Seeking Alpha just doing summaries of all the earnings calls!
So, as I have kept saying, debt is a killer going forward so yes, I’d rather have HBI take $300M and pay it towards $3.6Bn in debt (which at 5% is $150M off my profits) than hand it out to greedy shareholders.
Eliminate the debt and profits go up 50% – that’s very simple. Don’t you want to own a company whose profits will go up 50% in 5 years PLUS whatever other gains they manage to make?
Phil – would appreciate your thoughts on Amprius (AMPX) and Enovix (ENVX), both battery start ups. TJ Rodgers (of Cypress, and ex- Enphase and ex-SPWR ) took over as chairman of the Board Nov of last year. The two are using silicone as the anode in lithium cells – the challenge is the physical expansion of the cell, and the two companies have different approaches to address it. I came across a couple of seekingalpha articles discussing these:
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4566179-silicon-kings-amprius-and-enovix
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4574453-long-cast-advisers-q4-2022-letter
They are both early stage, but TJ Rodgers does have a reputation in this sector. ENVX seems to be dealing with a scale-up issue, the tech seems to have worked out (I think), but they were pretty negative on the timeline of the manufacturing that resulted in a 30% fall in Jan.
You must be talking to my wife because she thinks I have an opinion on everything as well…. 😉
I don’t know much about them but I’m vary wary of hot sector start-ups. Why are they going to beat the other 500 battery start-ups? As noted in the article you linked:
That being said, my understanding is a silicone/graphene composite anode seems to be the way to go. The protective-layer solutions are simply attempts to contain the problem, not a solution.
On the whole, AMPX seems to be more closely associated with that process. Still, they are valued at $500M and have $5M in the bank and burned $16M last year and plan on burning $35M this year with only licensing sales. So there will be at least a 10% dilution ahead just to cover the burn.
ENVX is just under $1Bn with $5M in sales and they are burning $100M with $350M in the bank and they are going a whole different way by cycling the anodes in a 3D matrix and that’s not a terrible idea but it’s an engineering monstrosity to get right.
At least with ENVX, they’ve already got 3 years worth of burn to get it right.
I think I still have the edge over OpenAI on this one but you decide:
See it only knows what it reads, no critical thinking/skepticism or experience, of course – it needs to learn that.
You have to nudge it.
I said: “Which seems like a better solution?”
And my buddy says:
Good point.
That’s the problem with LQMT – mind-blowing tech and lots of patents but they can’t figure out how to scale it, so they are twisting in the wind.
Still a lot of misses…
APD:
GOOS:
HOG:
I mean, holy crap! I guess it’s not too like to take up professional glass-blowing?
Nope, too late: https://youtu.be/mkVjardDBW4
When I try to use ChatGpt it always says over capacity. I entered my email to be contacted when there are openings but that has never happened.
Whoops, never mind. Apparently just the ready now notify does not work. I am in now.
They are rolling out a $20/month version with preferred access. I’ll get my use out of it.
11am to 5pm is the worst time, better after that.
Phil / big Tech guys missed across the board… AAPL, GOOGL, AMZN, QCOM. Some worse than others…. Apple was fairly off across the board..
Yeah, well we weren’t expecting them to do well, that’s why we were bearish overall.
Still, we’ll see what kind of mood traders are in but ouch!
Alphabet (GOOG)
Amazon (AMZN) Guidance In-line
Apple (AAPL)
I’m surprised the Nas isn’t in free-fall from all 3 missing.
F with a big miss. GPRO beat.
MSTR is a disaster.
SBUX miss.
BYD great.
Here’s a good summary, NAK is F’d:
The real issue is wastewater disposal and controlling the run-off. If they can find an alternate solution to that, it could work but nothing exists at the moment that would be cost-effective.
This is just too much fun:
I was seeing if OpenAI can find out about people and it’s pretty bad at that unless they are in the public eye. It did work when I asked it: “Can you tell me about Phil Davis of philstockworld.com?”
It said:
That’s a pretty good bio!