the Outsider - PSE Points to Ponder

  We’ve been blogging for free. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us! Disclaimer:  This is for informational purposes and is  not  investment advice. Figures are taken from company disclosures and exchange data; valuation ratios include the author’s calculations based on cited inputs. Far Eastern University, Incorporated (FEU) has nudged its cash dividend lower,  to ₱14.00 per share from the prior ₱16.00 per share, as  shown in its dividend history.  While a ₱2 cut may look modest, dividend adjustments are rarely cosmetic. In FEU’s case, the latest interim financials suggest a clear rationale: profitability is softening as costs rise faster than revenues, cash is being pulled into capital spending, and operating cash conversion is pressured by seasonality and receivables growth .  This is not a distress story. It is, however, a capital-allocation story —a board choosing to preserve flexibility in a year when the underlying earnings en...

  We’ve been blogging for free. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us! Disclaimer:  This is for informational purposes and is  not  investment advice. Figures are taken from company disclosures and exchange data; valuation ratios include the author’s calculations based on cited inputs. Philex Mining Corp. (PX) is heading into 2026 with a rare combination of near‑term optimism and familiar operational caution —and the market’s first clear signal of that balancing act came via its latest cash payout. The company declared a ₱ 0.04-per-share cash dividend (about ₱231 million in total), double the ₱ 0.02-per-share  cash dividend it declared a year earlier—an upgrade that underscores both earnings momentum and management’s confidence heading into Silangan’s long-awaited start-up window.  A higher dividend, but still a “measured” payout The headline number is the doubling itself: PX’s board approved a ₱0.04/share dividend payable March 25, 2026 to sh...

  We’ve been blogging for free. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us! Disclaimer:  This is for informational purposes and is  not  investment advice. Figures are taken from company disclosures and exchange data; valuation ratios include the author’s calculations based on cited inputs. There are rallies that announce themselves with fireworks, and then there are rallies that quietly rearrange the scoreboard for everyone who had the good sense—or the patience—to already be on the field. International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICT) has been the loud kind lately. At ₱680 a share (as of Feb. 20, 2026 ), it’s the sort of valuation that doesn’t just lift a stock—it reshapes the pecking order of portfolios that hold it. And as ICT climbs, the spotlight naturally falls on the usual suspects: the founders, the nominee accounts, the insiders whose names the market knows by heart.  But one of the most interesting beneficiaries isn’t a port operator at...

  We’ve been blogging for free. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us! Disclaimer:  This is for informational purposes and is  not  investment advice. Figures are taken from company disclosures and exchange data; valuation ratios include the author’s calculations based on cited inputs. The market has been running a split screen: ICTSI’s valuation has been re-rated upward , while SM’s has been marked down —despite both being best-in-class franchises. The cleanest way to describe what’s happening is multiple expansion versus multiple compression : the market is willing to pay more for ICTSI’s earnings stream, and less for SM’s—even if SM remains profitable and resilient. The bridge between price and valuation is always the same question: what did the latest quarter do to conviction? In their 3Q 2025 SEC Form 17-Qs , ICTSI delivered the kind of numbers that investors tend to reward with a higher multiple— double-digit growth, margin lift, and strong operatin...

We’ve been blogging for free. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us! Disclaimer:  This is for informational purposes and is  not  investment advice. Figures are taken from company disclosures and exchange data; valuation ratios include the author’s calculations based on cited inputs. There’s a certain kind of investor who treats a dividend announcement like a weather report: not because surprises never happen, but because most of the time, patterns win. Filinvest Land, Inc. (FLI) looks set to follow its familiar pattern in 2026— keep the cash dividend flat —not because it can’t pay more, but because the company’s operating reality and capital priorities strongly argue for stability over generosity . Good year, not a “raise-the-dividend” year FLI’s 2025 results were respectable. The company reported ₱25.90 billion in consolidated revenues and other income, up 6% , while net income after tax rose 4% to ₱4.81 billion —a steady performance given high interest rate...

We’ve been blogging for free. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us! Disclaimer:  This is for informational purposes and is  not  investment advice. Figures are taken from company disclosures and exchange data; valuation ratios include the author’s calculations based on cited inputs. Some days, the market hands you a headline that reads like a business textbook—simple, clean, and undeniably uplifting. Today is one of those days for Emperador Inc. (EMI) , after the company disclosed a fresh tranche of treasury shares sold under its Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) —a move that doesn’t just reward performance, but celebrates it in the most tangible way possible: real equity, real upside, real wealth creation .  At the heart of the story is a number that leaps off the page: ₱7.00 per share . That’s the ESOP strike/acquisition price cited in the company’s ESOP-related treasury-share sales disclosures. And when you set that against EMI’s prevailing market leve...