cvernon, Author at Marquette Associates

Is the Private Equity Market Overvalued?

Most institutional investors generally expect lower future returns at this point of the economic cycle as valuations remain inflated across all asset classes. Nevertheless, investors still seek attractive opportunities which provide potential for stronger relative returns. We continue to see robust fundraising in the private equity industry as investors are attracted to the current fundamentals as well as the long-term excess returns the industry has generated.

Valuations have continued to increase across the private equity industry, partly as a result of improving fundamentals of small businesses in the U.S., and partly as a result of an increasingly attractive sellers’ market, with strategic and financial buyers anticipated to deploy capital over the next few years. These valuations, now averaging 10.5x EBITDA, still remain well below the public markets. Throughout this growth cycle private valuations have not inflated as significantly as they have in the public markets. As seen in the chart, over the last decade valuations in private equity have ranged between a 20-40% discount to the Russell 2000. We believe this persistently lower valuation in a relatively expensive market should continue to attract capital from valuation sensitive investors as they rebalance portfolios heading into 2018.

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The opinions expressed herein are those of Marquette Associates, Inc. (“Marquette”), and are subject to change without notice. This material is not financial advice or an offer to purchase or sell any product. Marquette reserves the right to modify its current investment strategies and techniques based on changing market dynamics or client needs.

Shrinking Public Markets and Rising Valuations

Barring a correction in December, most U.S. equity indices are looking at another successful year of double-digit returns. While investors can rejoice in their strong portfolio performances, there is an air of caution as valuations are well above historical averages. This has been an area of concern for the last few years, yet markets continue to outperform and valuations keep rising.

One possible explanation for this is the decline in the total number of publicly traded companies. Since peaking in the mid-1990s, listed companies have fallen by nearly 50% to about 4,300 firms despite the total number of companies in the U.S. remaining about the same. More regulation as well as increased availability of private capital have made businesses less likely to go public. Most retail investors, however, do not have the capability to invest in private markets. With fewer investable options there is more money to go around to these publicly traded firms.

While most of the companies that choose to be public are larger than their private counterparts, this suggests the historic average valuation of about 20x earnings is too low of a benchmark for today’s publicly traded firms. These higher equity valuations may be the new normal and the bull run could continue in 2018.

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Is the U.S. Economy Headed for a Recession?

The U.S. Treasury yield curve, as measured by the difference between 10-year Treasuries and 2-year Treasuries, has flattened significantly over the past several years, decreasing from 2.65% on December 31, 2013 to 0.65% on November 15, 2017. In fact, this is the flattest that the yield curve has been since November 4, 2007, just prior to the onset of the “Great Recession,” and this has sparked concerns about a potential recession on the near-term horizon. A flattening yield curve has typically been associated with concerns about future economic growth, so mounting worries about a potential recession are understandable.

However, these concerns appear to be a bit premature. First, it is important to note that every recession since 1980 (including the “Great Recession”) was precipitated not only by a flattening yield curve, but by an inverted yield curve, meaning that yields on longer-term (i.e. 10-year) Treasuries were below yields on shorter-term (i.e. 2-year) Treasuries. Given that yields on 10-year Treasuries are currently 0.65% higher than yields on 2-year Treasuries, we are nowhere near an inverted yield curve. Second, it is worth noting that it is fairly common for the yield curve to flatten during rate hike cycles when short-term rates tend to rise faster than long-term rates. Given that the Federal Reserve Bank has increased interest rates four times since 2015, a flattening yield curve is not an unexpected occurrence. Finally, it is important to note that the yields on U.S. Treasuries — particularly the longer-end of the curve — have been significantly impacted by the actions of other central banks around the world. In 2013, the Bank of Japan launched a $1.4 trillion quantitative easing program that primarily focused on purchasing longer maturity Japanese government bonds. In 2015 the European Central Bank launched a $1.2 trillion quantitative easing program that primarily focused on purchasing longer maturity European government bonds. These large-scale bond purchase programs drastically lowered interest rates on Japanese and European government bonds, enticing investors from around the world to purchase U.S. Treasuries, which offered significantly higher relative yields. Between December 31, 2013 (when the spread between 10-year and 2-year Treasuries was 2.65%) and November 15, 2017 (when the spread between 10-year and 2-year Treasuries was 0.65%), yields on 10-year U.S. Treasuries actually decreased from 3.03% to 2.34%, while yields on 2-year U.S. Treasuries increased from 0.38% to 1.69%.

While the flattening yield curve is somewhat concerning, it appears that this combination of Federal Reserve rate hikes boosting the short end of the curve and quantitative easing programs from global central banks depressing the longer end of the curve is the primary driver of the flattening yield curve, not concerns about future economic growth in the United States.

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Wages, Labor, and Productivity: Looking for a Rebound

This week’s chart examines the average annual growth rates for wage gap, labor productivity, and real hourly compensation in the nonfarm business sector during various business cycles. Due to the cyclical nature of productivity data, business cycles are employed to allow for a standardized comparison through time.

The average labor productivity growth for the cycles examined is 2.3%, average compensation growth is 1.7%, and wage gap growth is 0.5%. The last business cycle saw dips for all of these averages: labor productivity growth came in at 1.1%, compensation growth is 0.7%, and the wage gap is 0.4%. These data points further reinforce the notion that U.S. growth is sub-par, despite the length of time for which the economy has been expanding. A lack of productivity growth may be a reason why wages have remained stagnant as the economy has continued to grow. Going forward, positive developments for all these metrics should be accretive to U.S. economic growth.

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Falling Correlations Boost Hedge Fund Returns

When looking at hedge fund performance in 2017, equity hedge has been by far the best performing strategy, with the HFRI Equity Hedge Index up 9.6% through the end of the third quarter.

What has made the environment so appealing for equity hedge performance in 2017? This week’s chart looks at the CBOE S&P 500 Implied Correlation Index over the past year. The index measures the expected average correlation of price returns between S&P 500 Index components, implied through SPX option prices and prices of single-stock options on the 50 largest components of the SPX. The index hit a low of 13 during the month of October, as correlations continued to trend lower.

An environment in which correlations are lower is a positive for active managers, particularly those that are both long and short individual stocks. When correlations fall, we expect stocks to trade more off fundamentals versus moving with the general market. We believe this is one factor that has helped equity hedge strategies during 2017, and should continue to be accretive to returns if correlations remain depressed.

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It’s All About the Bitcoin: Dollars or Cryptocurrency?

Flash talk by Greg Leonberger, FSA, EA, MAAA, at Marquette’s 2017 Investment Symposium

What is cryptocurrency? We examine how cryptocurrency is transacted, including how blockchains function, then dive into Bitcoin’s uses, acquisition, mining, and circulation. As an investment, the last few years have shown impressive (and frightening) growth, but we caution investors to be aware of the volatility within Bitcoin and look back at tulips for some insight. There are many challenges and unknowns cryptocurrencies face, and it is still early in the game to determine whether Bitcoin will (or can) become a conventional medium of exchange.

The Emerging Sector in EM Equity

This week’s Chart of the Week examines how investment opportunities in emerging markets have changed over the last seven years. Historically investors have associated emerging markets with commodities but this view is becoming outdated. In 2011, Financials, Energy and Materials were the three largest sectors within the MSCI Emerging Markets (EM) Index. The Information Technology (IT) sector constituted 12% of the benchmark. Fast forward to present day and IT has now more than doubled to 27% while Energy and Materials have both halved.

This evolution speaks to the economic developments several emerging countries have experienced over the last two decades, with increases in population and income. This can be especially seen in China where companies like Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu have capitalized on the expanding middle class. Investors have taken notice of the growth potential and the IT sector within EM has led the way in 2017 returning just over 50% through September. Investors can debate whether these stocks have gotten ahead of themselves but the shift in investment opportunity over the last decade is unquestionable.

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Where’s the VIX?

In a time when there is a lot of fear and uncertainty surrounding political turmoil, geopolitical issues, and tension with North Korea, the market appears remarkably calm. For this week’s chart of the week we take a look at the widely followed CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) which is considered to be the best gauge for expected fear in the markets over the next 30 days. On October 5th, the VIX dropped to a 23-year low closing at 9.19, a number not seen in almost two decades. Leading up to this record close was an impressive eight-day stretch of closes below 10, the longest streak of its history.

Why do the markets seem to be resilient to the ever-concerning news cycle? While impossible to know for certain, speculation includes positive macroeconomic signs, stronger earnings growth, gaining popularity of passive index investing, and complacency of the markets. Although the VIX is well below its historical average of 19, it is worth noting that fear can quickly resurface. In the meantime, it will be interesting to see if further VIX index levels can be achieved which would likely be paired with the markets reaching additional record highs.

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Info Tech Surpasses Dot-Com Peak – Is This Time Different?

With U.S. equities enjoying the second longest bull market run on record, it has become a frequent occurrence to see equity indices hit new closing highs. The S&P 500 has recorded 39 new closing highs during the first three quarters of 2017 alone. A noteworthy milestone recently occurred for the S&P 500 Information Technology (“IT”) sector. This sector now trades at levels above its prior March 2000 dot-com peak. IT is the best performing sector of the S&P 500 thus far in 2017 with a year-to-date return of +27.4% through September and is now the largest weighted sector in the S&P 500 with a weight of 23.2%. Like most sectors of U.S. equities, the information technology sector trades near the high end of its historical valuation range. Strong performance from this sector in recent years has led to comparisons with the prior dot-com bubble, but is this time different?

While few would disagree that we are nearing the later stages of the current market cycle, the typical excess and euphoria seen in prior market peaks do not appear to be present. Compared to the prior dot-com peak, the information technology sector today is on noticeably better footing. Companies in this sector today tend to have healthier balance sheets and hold greater cash levels. Valuations, while elevated, are not nearly as overvalued as the prior peak. On a 12-month forward P/E basis, the IT sector trades at 19.5x versus a level of 56x seen in March 2000. There are certainly individual cases of overvalued securities, but in aggregate the sector is valued much more reasonably than during 2000. Additionally, the main driver of long-term stock returns has historically been growth in corporate earnings. Today, the IT sector generates healthy levels of earnings growth and cash flows; many companies during the dot-com era did not have actual earnings to justify their lofty valuations. While market bubbles are only identified on a post-mortem basis, investors today can at least take comfort in knowing that the IT sector possesses healthier fundamentals and less euphoric valuations than seen in the past.

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