By GREENBACKD We wrote an article for the April issue of Value Investing Letter giving an overview of Quantitative Value, discussing the quantitative value model outlined in the book, and applying it to Apple Inc. (AAPL). It’s been smashed up since then, and there was also some big news yesterday — which is that AAPL is going to return $100 billion to its shareholders by the end of 2015 – so I’m highlighting it here. To put that $100 billion capital return...
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Larry Flynt, Publisher of Hustler Magazine in an interview to appear on FOX Business Network’s (FBN) Countdown to the Closing Bell (3PM/ET), anchor Liz Claman speaks with about his concerns surrounding the print media industry. Flynt stated, “I don’t think Hustler will exist more than another two or three years” in print. Larry Flynt went on to say that “25 years ago, 95 percent of my profits came from publishing. Today, only 5 percent profits come from publishing.”...
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Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) just yesterday announced their new tablet won’t be running Windows, unsurprisingly they went with Android. This isn’t a game changer for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) but is just one more example of competition chipping away at was once one of the widest moats in the corporate world. PC makers used to be captive to Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). In the 90s and 2000s, nearly early every computer application was designed for Windows so when deciding what...
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“Google has a huge new moat, in fact I’ve probably never seen such a wide moat.” Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway. And the wider the moat, the longer the castle will stand the test of time and rivals. Probably Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has shown us what ‘moat’ really means and how best to build it; fill it with water, put crocs in it, mount archers to protect the economic castle, so the company and investment...
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I’ve really been getting into the mental models Charlie Munger has talked about so much. After you learn a new model, it stays deep in your head and can be applied to many situations in the future. While others look at a problem or a question in isolation, those with mental models can apply a number of different tools to the situation, offering superior insight. A great book I read recently was The Innovator’s Dilemma by...
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Recently, Globeinvestor (Canada’s leading business publisher) converted to a paywall which got a lot of people angry but with declining print circulation numbers, it was only a matter of time. Paywalls have some elements of a prisoner’s dilema. The best outcome for the industry would be for all providers to institute paywalls on consumers. However, the newspaper that remains only ad supported obtains higher traffic, increasing their profits at the expense of the industry. There...
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Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) suppliers operate in one of the most lucrative industries in terms of guaranteed market, but this does not come at no cost. Bank of America Corporation (NYSE:BAC)’s Merril Lynch (BAML) has done a critical and fascinating analysis on Apple’s supply chain, by applying Michael Porters’ Five Forces model. The analysis indicate that these companies suffer as much as they gain, due to the influence of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), in many ways. Michael Porter’s...
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Pat Dorsey is the former director of research at Morningstar. He has some very interesting contributions to the concept of moats, which he spells out in two of his great books, The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing and The Little Book That Builds Wealth. You can also see my interview with Pat Dorsey at the following link, where he discusses topics like what IS and what is not a moat. In this video with The Manual of Ideas,...
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Frank Voisin is the author of the popular value focused website Frankly Speaking, found at http://www.FrankVoisin.com. Arbitron Inc (NYSE: ARB) is a market research company that has, since 1912, estimated the size and composition of radio (and later TV) audiences for broadcasters and advertisers. The company has no debt, pays a steady dividend, and traditionally has earned strong ROEs thanks to the company’s near 100% market share in terrestrial radio market research. What I like...
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Pat Dorsey, Sanibel Captiva Trust – Using Economic Moats to Improve Investment Returns Pat is an author of The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing, The Little Book That Builds Wealth and Vice Chairman, and Director of Research at Sanibel. Sanibel has about $600M under management • Capitalism works – High profit operations attract competition o Most businesses see returns decline over time o A moat is a structural business characteristic o Smart mangers are...
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Brian Bares, Bares Capital Management – The Small Cap Advantage Brian Bares is author of The Small-Cap Advantage: How Top Endowments and Foundations Turn Small Stocks into Big Returns, and the founder & portfolio manager at Bares. Bares leans more toward the Munger approach and focusses on the small/micro-cap space Small Caps Better compounders Persistently outperform larger cap stocks More good ideas Less market efficiency in prices Less or No analyst coverage 3k-4k companies...
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