Hottest Links: VC Vs Value Investing, Case Studies, Ben Graham, Luck

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Hottest links for Saturday-Sunday, March 29th-30th, the weekend edition. Get our free daily newsletter and never miss a single linkfest. Also, now if you sign up you will get our new e-book on value investing.

Top stories for today are included below. As usual, it is our (extra extra) value edition for this weekend edition. Also see two great new posts on Ben Graham here and here; Lots of other great articles about investment process, behavioral finance, the difference between VC and value investing, case studies on Coke, BNI and other companies, and much more below.

Hottest Links: Stories

Value Investing

Socrates and the Search For Wisdom

This is an excerpt from Plato’s Apology, from Plato: Complete Works (an excellent edition that is part of the Great Books program). To set the context, while this is known as the apology it comes from the word apologia, which means not an apology as we know it but “a defense speech in a legal proceeding.” [Shane Parish, Farnam Street]

10x Pretax Earnings! Case Studies: The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO), Burlington Northern Santa Fe, LLC (NYSE:BNI) etc

I have mentioned 10x pretax earnings or 10% pretax yield as Buffett’s valuation measure numerous times here and more than once I’ve gotten a response saying that this hurdle is for private deals and not for pricing listed companies.  The argument, of course, is that if you buy a stock at 10% pretax earnings, you won’t actually earn 10% pretax. [KK, Brooklyn Investor]

The fundamental difference between Venture Capital and Value Investing

Venture capital and value investing share many different elements but each system is based on a different mispricing. This is a critically important point for an investor to understand. If an asset is not mispriced, market outperformance is not mathematically possible. [Tren Griffin, 25iq]

Pavlov’s dogs

In a wonderful book “Brain Bugs”, the author, Dean Buonomano, shades more light on classical conditioning. Pavlov first demonstrated the principles of classical conditioning by burning the association between the sound of a bell and food into the brains of his dogs, by pairing the bell with food over and over again. When it comes to the world of marketing, we are all Pavlov’s dogs. [Chetan Parikh, capitalideasonline.com]

Value Investing: An Introduction

Recently I attended a course at Stanford on Value Investing: An Introduction. The course was taught by Kenneth J Marshall who is a value investor and Chairman at Judicial Capital. [Jana Vembunarayanan, Seeking Wisdom]

There’s No Substitute for Good Judgment

So says Commander Lyle Tiberius Rourke in the Disney film Atlantis: The Lost Empire, referring to the famous expression attributed to the great American showman: “There’s a sucker born every minute.” [Robert Seawright, Pragmatic Capitalism]

Why It Matters That Value Stocks Are Outperforming Growth Stocks

Quite a bit of discussion has occurred over the past several days regarding the fact value stocks are outperforming growth stocks. This outperformance has taken place since the beginning of March as can be seen in the below chart. [Horan Capital Advisors]

Funds

Getting Lucky

Emerging market equities, now trading at a discount to slower growing western markets, are beginning to look attractive by some measures. [Christopher Pavese, The View from the Blue Ridge]

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5 Low PEmg Companies for the Enterprising Investor

There are a number of great companies in the market today. By using the ModernGraham Valuation Model, I’ve selected the five lowest PEmg (price / normalized earnings) companies which are, Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F), Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (NYSE:FCX), Capital One Financial Corp. (NYSE:COF), Unum Group (NYSE:UNM) and Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI) reviewed by ModernGraham. [Benjamin Clark, ModernGraham]

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Coca Cola Misfires on Share Repurchase Rationale

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) is in the midst of a major controversy prompted by shareholder objections to the company’s equity compensation plan which is outlined in the company’s 2014 proxy statement. [The Rational Walk]

Safeway Finally Plans To Distribute Remaining Blackhawk Stake

The dance is finally over and Safeway Inc. (NYSE:SWY) has found its suitor. After a lot of speculation, the grocer agreed to be acquired by Cerberus owned Albertson’s for ~$9b. [Spin Doctor, Stock Spinoffs]

DirecTV Update & The Future of the Pay-TV Industry

DIRECTV (NASDAQ:DTV) stock has had a good run since my write-up as the market has re-rated the shares to a more reasonable multiple. [Richard, Value Venture]

Hottest Links: Not The Onion

Darth Vader nominated by Internet Party to run for Ukrainian presidency

Darth Vader nominated by the Internet Party of Ukraine to run for president has submitted documents to the Ukrainian Central Elections Commission for being registered as a presidential candidate. [Voice of Russia]

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