Everything ValueWalk covers about Technology, including the latest news, tips, rumors, features, tech guides.
Frank Voisin is a value investor and independent analyst whose site, Frankly Speaking, contains Frank’s investment theses as well as educational material to help investors avoid value traps. Subscribe to Frank’s feed here.
In October, I wrote about Zoran Corporation (NASDAQ:ZRAN), a maker of power supplies and digital imaging equipment that was hitting new 52 week lows.
Charles Rotblut is a vice president with the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII). He is the editor of the AAII Journal and helps to manage the Stock Superstars portfolio. Charles is a CFA charter holder and recently authored a book titled Better Good than Lucky: How Savvy Investors Create Fortune with the Risk-Reward Ratio. Charles was kind enough to answer some of my questions.
Thanks so much for your time Charles. I am curious if you can start off with telling us a little bit about your background?
Sure. I started out analyzing privately-held companies and partnerships in the mid-1990s. This involved a lot of onsite visits and careful scrutiny of the financial statements. It was a good way to learn how to be an analyst because there weren’t good comparative valuations and we had to consider what an outside investor would actually be willing to pay. From there, I went to work at INVESTools – a for-profit investment education company, Curian Capital – a money management firm, and Zacks Investment Research – a research firm.
Frank Voisin is a value investor and independent analyst whose site, Frankly Speaking, contains Frank’s investment theses as well as educational material to help investors avoid value traps. Subscribe to Frank’s feed here.
Gaming Partners International Corp (NASDAQ:GPIC) is a manufacturer of counterfeit-resistant casino chips enabled with RFID technology. GPIC sells these chips, among other gaming products, to casinos worldwide, with manufacturing in France, Mexico and the United States. Recognizing the growth prospects of gambling in Asia, GPIC will be opening a sales office in Macau in 2011.
Tim du Toit is editor and founder of Eurosharelab. On his website he reveals what more than 20 years of equity investment have taught him – sometimes at considerable cost. To discover how you can avoid costly mistakes and enjoy greater profits, sign up for his free newsletter “Investing that makes sense” at www.eurosharelab.com
Have you ever thought of where and how the highest consistent investment returns are achieved?
The answer is surprisingly simple. You have to buy undervalued companies in good financial shape.
That sounds easy enough you may be thinking. But where do I find them?
Over 20 years of investment experience has taught me, you have to look where others don’t…
either because they are too lazy and do not want to do the analysis, or they simply do not know where to look.
In this article I want to show you some of the unusual places I look for investment ideas, what I turned up and what the result were.
Frank Voisin is a value investor and independent analyst whose site, Frankly Speaking, contains Frank’s investment theses as well as educational material to help investors avoid value traps. Subscribe to Frank’s feed here.
Peerless Systems Corp. (NASDAQ:PRLS) licenses imaging and networking technologies for use in printers and multifunctions. In 2008, it sold substantially all of its operating assets to Kyocera-Mita Corp., but retained the intellectual property which it now licenses. The company is trading at a slight (5%) discount to its NCAV, but the interesting story of PRLS relates to its EPV.
by Rob Bennett
It is conventional investing wisdom that stocks are more risky than bonds. The purpose of this column is to question the conventional investing wisdom in light of Yale Economics Professor Robert Shiller’s startling finding that valuations affect long-term returns and that long-term stock returns are thus to a large extent predictable. Given Shiller’s findings, I do not think it makes sense anymore to believe that stocks are necessarily more risky than bonds.
Geoff Gannon of http://www.gannononinvesting.com/ posted this great stock valuation exercise. Everyone should talke it. Even though there are many many details missing it is still a great way to think about how you analyze stocks. As he mentions in the article you only have ten minutes to analyze.
Here is the link to the test from Geoff’s website (How Much Would You Pay for This Stock? – Blind Stock Valuation #1) which I also is posted below, I also posted my answer to the question.
My friend Miguel is arranging a conference in Chicago for value investors. I highly recommend that anyone who lives in the Chicago area or can travel goes to the event. There are going to be two great speakers there. Plus Miguel is one of the nicest people you meet and also is a great contact to have. In short you will get some great valuable advice and it will be an excellent event for networking.
Frank Voisin is a value investor and independent analyst whose site, Frankly Speaking, contains Frank’s investment theses as well as educational material to help investors avoid value traps. Subscribe to Frank’s feed here.
MicroFinancial Incorporated (NASDAQ:MFI) leases commercial equipment valued between $500 and $25,000 to a range of lessees. MFI does not purchase equipment until a potential lessee actually enters into a lease, at which point MFI buys the equipment from its dealer network, and MFI doesn’t see the equipment again until the end of the lease.
by Ben Strubel of Strubel Investment Management
Investing in companies that pay above average dividends has historically been a good investment strategy. Of course investors, specifically those looking for income, are looking for more than just a current high dividend yield they also want the company to be able to continue to pay out that high dividend and hopefully increase it as well.
Frank Voisin is a value investor and independent analyst whose site, Frankly Speaking, contains Frank’s investment theses as well as educational material to help investors avoid value traps. Subscribe to Frank’s feed here.
Sutor Technology Group Ltd. (NASDAQ:SUTR) is a manufacturer of steel products. It trades for just $80m despite having NCAV of $104m and positive earnings (the company trades at just 5.6x P/E).
When listening to the financial media around earnings season in particular there is a lot of talk about companies’ top line and bottom line. The top line refers to the revenue as it is at the top of the income statement, and the bottom line refers to net income which is at the bottom of the statement.
Frank Voisin is a value investor and independent analyst whose site, Frankly Speaking, contains Frank’s investment theses as well as educational material to help investors avoid value traps. Subscribe to Frank’s feed here.
Asta Funding, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASFI) acquires portfolios of consumer receivables (predominantly credit card, but also auto loans and a few others) for pennies on the dollar and then works to recover as much of the receivables as possible. Typically, collection of these receivables has already been attempted by the originator and others. ASFI has historically recovered approximately 160% of the purchase price of the receivables, earning a good return over several years for the time of purchase.
This is a great article Whitney Tilson wrote up. Tilson besides for being famous in the investment world is also very involved in education. Tilson is on the boards of KIPP charter schools and the Council of Urban Professionals in New York and of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, one of the founders of Democrats for Education Reform, and the co-founder of the Rewarding Achievement (REACH) program.
Although I do not agree with his thesis that because China has a better education system they will surpass the West, he definitely makes a good argument below.
Tim Du Toit of www.EuroShareLab.com
Looking back at 2010 it turned out a lot better than I expected. After the market rollercoaster ride of the last few years it was nice to have a relatively stable year.
The main indices returned the following:
German DAX +16,1%
European STOXX 600 + 8,6%
US S&P 500 +12,8%
US Dow Jones +11,0%
European STOXX 50 + 0,0%
But what to make of 2011?