Joel Greenblatt Talks New Strategy, Twitter, Zynga
Tomorrow Consuelo Mack WealthTrack features an interview with Gotham Funds‘ “Great Investor” Joel Greenblatt , premiering nationwide beginning Friday, November 14 at 7:30 p.m. on public television (check local listings**) and on wealthtrack.com. The value investor explains his big change in portfolio strategy — from a very tight focus to broad diversification to reduce portfolio swings — and discusses Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) and Zynga Inc (NASDAQ:ZNGA). Background on Joel Greenblatt is below.
VIDEO preview: WealthTrack Anchor and Executive Producer Consuelo Mack asks Joel Greenblatt how he justifies investing in so many companies?
Joel Greenblatt on how he justifies investing in so many companies?
Joel Greenblatt says, “So the big picture is we’re excellent on average. We’re not right every time. We’re right most of the time, however, and that’s all we need to be when we have 300 names.” He notes: “Twitter is a company that has a lot of users, but not a lot of revenue and a lot of cash flow. It’s losing money, so that’s not usually a good thing. Growth has slowed down, so I’d be curious if they can turn that into a good business model. Zynga was a game company that loses lots of money and probably has seen its heyday, so that’s another short that we have. And generally we’re looking for things that are earning very little or losing money and destroying capital as they do it.”
The full interview will be available after tomorrow’s broadcast premiere at wealthtrack.com.
Watch last week’s exclusive interview with contrarian value investor Robert Kleinschmidt, portfolio manager of the 4-star rated Tocqueville Fund, who discusses Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and why he thinks the Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates for years: http://wealthtrack.com/recent-programs/kleinschmidt-contrarian-value/
Background
Joel Greenblatt delivered 34% annualized returns running hedge fund Gotham Capital from 1985-1995 with an extremely concentrated portfolio of 6-8 stocks before closing the fund to outside investors and giving the money back. Fast forward 14 years to 2009 and Joel Greenblatt and his long time co-manager decided to start another hedge fund plus mutual funds, Gotham Asset Management, with a very different approach: ranking 2,000 companies, then buying 300 of the best and cheapest and shorting 300 of the most speculative and expensive.
**Local market airdates and more info on Consuelo Mack WealthTrack are below.
About Consuelo Mack WealthTrack
New episodes premiere every week nationwide on public television (check local listings)
**New York metro area: Fridays at 7:30 p.m. on WLIW21, Saturdays at 8 a.m. on THIRTEEN and Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on NJTV
**Los Angeles area: Saturdays at 8 a.m. on PBS SoCal WORLD, Sundays at 3:30 p.m. on KLCS, and Tuesdays at 11:30pm on KVCRDT3 Desert Cities
