Why is the stock of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. So Volatile?

Goodyear (GT) is a very volatile stock with a beta of 1.86, measured using a linear regression model. This linear regression model used monthly returns for Goodyear and the Vanguard S&P 500 Index ETF (VOO) from June 2019 to January 2023. This beta is one of the highest I have encountered among the stocks I cover (Exhibit 1).

Image: 90% Sustainable Material Demonstration Tire

Source: Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.

The stock is heavily dependent on the discretionary spending of the consumer. In a downturn, car sales drop, thus affecting Goodyear's sales. The replacement tire sales also drop in an economic slowdown, affecting the company. These might be the reasons behind the high volatility.   

Note: Please click on the image to see an enlarged version.

Exhibit 1: Beta of Stocks in Industrial, Consumer Staples, Technology, and Consumer Discretionary Sectors  

Source: Data Provided by IEX Cloud, Author Calculations using Microsoft Excel & RStudio

Here's the output from the linear regression model:

Call:

lm(formula = GT_Monthly_Return ~ VOO_Monthly_Return, data = VOOandGT)

Residuals:

     Min       1Q   Median       3Q      Max 

-0.21099 -0.10456 -0.01782  0.07052  0.55012 

Coefficients:

                    Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)    

(Intercept)        -0.008481   0.021853  -0.388      0.7    

VOO_Monthly_Return  1.869864   0.379106   4.932 1.33e-05 ***

---

Signif. codes:  0 ‘***’ 0.001 ‘**’ 0.01 ‘*’ 0.05 ‘.’ 0.1 ‘ ’ 1

Residual standard error: 0.1425 on 42 degrees of freedom

Multiple R-squared:  0.3668, Adjusted R-squared:  0.3517 

F-statistic: 24.33 on 1 and 42 DF,  p-value: 1.326e-05

The coefficient for "VOO_Monthly_Return" is the beta for the stock.  This coefficient is also the slope of the line.  The monthly returns of Goodyear have been plotted against the returns of the Vanguard S&P 500 Index ETF (Exhibit 2). Exhibit 3 shows the residuals from the linear regression mode. There is a solid positive monthly return correlation of 0.61 between the Vanguard ETF and Goodyear. There is also a significant relationship between the monthly returns of the Vanguard ETF and Goodyear, with a p-value of 1.3e-05.     

Exhibit 2: Monthly Returns Plot of the Vanguard S&P 500 Index ETF and Goodyear Tires

Source: Data Provided by IEX Cloud, Author Calculations Using Microsoft Excel, and Graph Plotted Using RStudio

Exhibit 3: Residuals from the Linear Regression of the Vanguard S&P 500 Index ETF and Goodyear Tires Monthly Returns

Source: Data Provided by IEX Cloud, Author Calculations Using Microsoft Excel, and Graph Plotted Using RStudio

Copper Prices at 5-Week Lows. Is this a Bad Sign for the Global Economy?

Aluminum and copper prices are a study in contrast. Aluminum is trading near all-time highs (See Exhibit 1: Aluminum Trading Near All-time High Price) while copper's rally is beginning to fade. Copper is trading at 5-week lows.  

Exhibit 1: Aluminum Trading Near All-time High Price

(Source: Trading Economics)

According to Trading Economics, low inventory levels, the power crisis in Europe, and Ukraine-Russia tensions are all to blame for this incredible rally in aluminum.

Meanwhile, copper prices are at five-week lows due to the strong dollar and increased production. Trading Economics reports that Chilean authorities are projecting that copper production will increase by 4.1% during 2022, returning to pre-pandemic levels. Even at its current price of $4.32/lb, copper is trading at all-time highs (See Exhibit 2: Copper Prices at 5-Week Lows). I am watching copper see if it falls below $4/lb. Falling below that price level may be a bearing sign not only for copper but for the world economy.

Exhibit 2: Copper Prices are at 5-Week Lows

(Source: Trading Economics)

If copper continues to fall, the stock prices for miners, such as Rio Tinto (RIO), might fall with it. The share price of Rio Tinto has tumbled about 9% from its peak of approximately $78.48 achieved in mid-January (See Exhibit 3: Rio Tinto's Share Price Takes a Hit in January).

Exhibit 3: Rio Tinto's Share Price Takes a Hit in January

(Source: Seeking Alpha)

Oracle: Excelling in Financial Engineering.

Oracle (ORCL) faced its first real challenge to its business model from Amazon AWS (AMZN). For a long time, Oracle's relational database has been the standard for many companies in the Global 2000. Oracle's database is still so entrenched in many corporations across the globe that they pay millions of dollars in Oracle license and support fees each year to keep the right to use their software. But, companies formed in the last 10-15 years have shunned the Oracle database. Instead, they have relied on myriad open-source database options and cheaper databases from other companies. The advent of AWS made it easy for any company to manage databases in the cloud. 

Oracle has lagged behind the prominent three cloud vendors in offering infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS). The company has a reasonably significant market share position in SaaS software, where it competes against the likes of Salesforce (CRM), Workday (WDAY), and SAP (SAP). But, Oracle is still heavily dependent on revenue from its database software. Since Oracle cannot attract new customers to its database, it has resorted to using its existing database install base as an annuity business. In essence, the Oracle database software generates much rental income from its remaining customers.  

In the face of Oracle management's inability to innovate and compete, they have resorted to financial engineering to prop up their share price. A company innovating and competing well in the marketplace is most likely growing revenues. At the very least, revenue growth needs to keep up with GDP growth. Unfortunately, there is no revenue growth at Oracle. In the fiscal year ending May 31, 2011, Oracle had total sales of $35.622 billion. In the fiscal year ending May 31, 2021, Oracle had total sales of $40.479 billion. That equates to a 13.6% growth in revenue over 11 years. The 13.6% rate amounts to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.16%. 

Exhibit: Oracle Annual Sales Revenue from Fiscal Year Ending on May 31, 2011

(Source: SEC.GOV)

How does a company show earnings per share (EPS) growth when revenue growth is nonexistent? Investors react positively to a growing EPS number. One way to show an ever-increasing EPS number is to repurchase the company shares and retire them. The repurchase transaction reduces the outstanding shares, and thus when stagnant net income is divided by outstanding shares, the resulting EPS number looks as if it is growing. 

The company has spent billions of dollars each year repurchasing its stock. The company has spent $137.65 billion in repurchasing its shares in 11 years. Initially, the share repurchases did not do much to the stock price. So, in recent years, the company has gotten even more brazen in buying back its stocks (See Exhibit: Annual Amount in Billions Spent by Oracle on Share Repurchase).  

Exhibit: Annual Amount in Billions Spent by Oracle on Share Repurchase 

(Source: SEC.GOV)

One way to analyze how much the company has spent on its repurchase is to compare its operating cash flow to the repurchase amount. The company had $155.212 billion in operating cash flow in 11 years and it spend 88.6% of that in buying back its own shares.

 

Exhibit: Oracle's Annual Operating Cash Flow

(Source: SEC.GOV)

In the end, Oracle's management led by Safra and the company's largest shareholder - Larry Ellison - benefit the most from these buybacks. Larry is now on the list of the top-10 wealthiest people in the world solely due to these buybacks. Due to these buybacks, the stock has risen a lot, and ordinary investors should prudently book profits. You do not want to be in this stock when the music stops.