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. If you’re looking for the cleanest proof that growth can be self-funding, Figaro Culinary Group (FCG) just put it on the table: stronger revenues plus a fatter gross margin translated into a major surge in operating cash flow , even as the company absorbed the predictable cost of building a larger network. The topline story: a bigger engine, not just a better lap time FCG’s latest quarter showed revenue acceleration that looks structural rather than accidental. The group’s quarter revenue rose ~16.8% year-on-year to ₱1.69B , while six-month revenue increased ~12.9% to ₱3.20B . What’s doing the heavy lifting? First, the Angel’s Pizza platform continues to dominate the growth narra...

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. In an energy business where prices shout and margins whisper, Petron’s 2025 story is less about oil’s theatrics and more about operational discipline. For the first nine months of 2025, the company posted ₱9.67 billion in consolidated net income— up 37% year-on-year—even as revenues fell 10% to ₱594.9 billion amid lower crude prices. The immediate takeaway is not “oil is back.” It’s that Petron managed to earn more by doing the basics better: selling more where it matters, running plants harder, and tightening the cash cycle while the market was busy blaming “softening cracks.”  The good news: demand at home is doing the heavy lifting Petron’s operational bright spot is do...

  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. When a chief executive buys shares after a rally, investors notice—because it’s the opposite of bargain-hunting. That’s the signal RFM Corporation watchers got this week after disclosures showed Chairman/President & CEO Jose Maria A. Concepcion III acquiring more RFM shares via Triple Eight Holdings, Inc.   Per a PSE EDGE Form 13-1 (Change in Shareholdings of Directors and Principal Officers) disclosure dated Feb. 10, 2026 , the transactions were executed on Feb. 9, 2026 , consisting of 4,200 shares at ₱5.48 and 80,100 shares at ₱5.50 , all recorded as indirect ownership through Triple Eight. After the purchases, Concepcion’s disclosed holdings stood at 2,640 s...

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. Investors love a simple story, and Panasonic Manufacturing Philippines Corporation (PMPC) gave the market a very tempting one in 2025: a big cash dividend — ₱0.7393 per share , paid in June—right in the middle of a year when operating conditions were anything but smooth. But in dividend investing, the important question is rarely “how big was the last payout?” The real question is: what in the latest results suggests the dividend can be sustained (or even raised) without quietly draining the company’s future? PMPC’s 17‑Q for the nine months ended December 31, 2025, offers some useful clues. 1) A dividend is only as strong as the cash behind it The most encouraging sign for divi...

  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. In REIT investing, there’s a familiar reflex: hear “property-for-share swap,” then brace for dilution. New shares mean more mouths to feed. Unless the new assets bring enough cash flow to keep dividends per share (DPS) rising, the transaction can feel like a shell game—bigger company, same slice (or smaller) for each investor. Yet RL Commercial REIT (RCR) has been trying to tell a different story—one where infusion-driven growth can still be dividend-accretive , even with an enlarged share base. The clue isn’t buried in a valuation report or a cap rate debate. It’s in the simplest, most investor-facing metric of all: the dividend per share history . The setup: A nine‑mall in...

  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. By any textbook of corporate finance, Ayala Land’s share buyback should have been a powerful statement. The company has essentially exhausted its ₱28 billion appropriation , having repurchased 1,105,204,046 shares for a cumulative ₱27,998,838,069 —a near‑complete deployment of the program. Yet the market’s verdict is blunt: ALI continues to trade around the low ₱20s , a neighborhood it hasn’t called home in years, with recent quotes near ₱21.30 .  That disconnect—between aggressive capital return and a stubbornly weak share price—tells you something important: the market is not doubting ALI’s willingness to support its stock. It is questioning the durability and qualit...

  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 seduction of “growth” when you’re already cash-rich There is a recurring corporate temptation that shows up most clearly in consumer giants: once the core franchise throws off reliable cash, management begins to treat that cash as a mandate to do something big . Often that “something” becomes acquisitions—new brands, new geographies, new narratives—frequently justified as “growth,” even when the acquired businesses are structurally low-return or outright loss-making.  Jollibee Foods Corporation (JFC) offers a timely cautionary case study. By its own disclosures, JFC delivered strong topline momentum through September 2025 and expanded its global store footprint, wit...