 Reading an author ‘s early writing allows us to see juvenile attempts at expressing a message more fully developed in that author’s later works. Having read through the Intelligent Investor and Security Analysis a few times, reading Benjamin Graham on Investing was an interesting opportunity to do just this.
Rodney Klein has put together a collection of early writings from Benjamin Graham pulled from a selection of shorter magazine articles by Graham dating from the period 1917-1927. Chapters include such topics as: Valuation of Great Northern Oil Certificates, and Is United Drug Cheap at 53?
Read More...
|
 I wish I had found this book years ago. Fundamental Analysis when done right requires a thorough understanding of every line item in every financial statement- what is it, what ratios use it, and most importantly, what does it tell you about the business you are trying to analyze.
I have read more than a few books on this subject, most take the approach of showing each line item of each statement and then providing an explanation of the ratios that use it and then how these ratios work. This approach of explanation has all the excitement of reading the dictionary and as a result when reading these books I often find myself staring off into nowhere or deciding that now is the perfect time to go out and clean those pesky rain gutters.
Read More...
|
 I hate blackberry, not the company, just the device. In the world of finance and business the blackberry has become a mandatory device. While access to individuals has certainly increased as a result of this device, I am constantly challenged by the poor quality of communication one often receives when dealing with people who use them.
Blackberry = low quality communication
An actual example of a message sent to a blackberry user:
Bob the 14K form for dividend contributions, does it have all of the customer info? I have the customer coming to the office in an hour. Hope Anne and the family are well, are you still planning on getting away this weekend?
Read More...
|
 If you are fortunate enough to have a few extra dollars at the end of the month after paying your mortgage what should you do?
Sample Mortgage Details
- 5.25%
- 25 year amortization
- $400,000 loan
- loan payments of around $2400
- our user has an extra $600 every month in free cash.
Option 1: Put the money into a dividend paying stock
In this scenario the user decides to pay the mortgage for the full 25 years and invest the extra $600 directly into a dividend paying stock. Our user finds a stock with an dividend yield of 6%, once the appreciation in the stock’s value is included the return amounts to 7.25%.
Read More...
|
 I make it a fairly regular habit of having a look at companies that care about their dividend. The dividend aristocrat list has always been a good starting place for me as these stocks have a proven track record of tailoring themselves to the dividend investor. Abbott Labs appears in the 2009 version of this list.
To put a full review of Abbott would make for a long post, and not a particularly interesting one, so I’ll instead restrict myself to looking at a few key elements from the company’s fundementals. Perhaps this will help to add to the research you have already performed on Abbott or suggest some alternative ways that you can look at other companies.
Read More...
|
 Below is our list of the top 10 ‘interesting’ insider trades for the week of 08/10/2009. These are companies that have been selected by the buyingvalue filter application. Read more about our value filters here. The companies selected are those that have cleared the first filter in the last 7 days and are the highest ranked filter 2. See here for more about the current selection criteria.
Read More...
| symbol |
P/E Ratio (TTM) |
P/E Low – Last 5 Yrs. |
Price to Book (MRQ) |
Dividend Yield |
Dividend 5 Year Growth Rate |
EPS – 5 Yr. Growth Rate |
Current Ratio (MRQ) |
|
 I very much dislike intangible assets, the growth or continued presence of them on a balance sheet always throws up a red flag for me. Maybe it is due to my value investor perspective but giving financial credence to a resource that I can’t see, can’t touch and can’t prove generated a cent of revenue in a business is something I just don’t like.
Definition
An asset that is not physical in nature. Corporate intellectual property (items such as patents, trademarks, copyrights, business methodologies), goodwill and brand recognition are all common intangible assets in today’s marketplace.
Read More...
|
 I had an interesting email conversation with a reader named Bill that I wanted to share. Bill is a stock broker in Oregon and has been working with the same brokerage firm for over 10 years. As I have taken several opportunities to slag their profession I was interested to hear more about his experiences. In the back and forth chat he said something that I think epitomizes my real issue with brokers.
Read More...
|
Below is our list of the top 10 ‘interesting’ insider trades for the week of 28/09/2009. These are companies that have been selected by the buyingvalue filter application. Read more about our value filters here. The companies selected are those that have cleared the first filter in the last 7 days and are the highest ranked filter 2. See here for more about the current selection criteria.
Read More...
| symbol |
P/E Ratio (TTM) |
P/E Low – Last 5 Yrs. |
Price to Book (MRQ) |
Dividend Yield |
Dividend 5 Year Growth Rate |
EPS – 5 Yr. Growth Rate |
Current Ratio (MRQ) |
|
 While I have often been impressed with both President Obama’s speeches and candor I honestly was not a big fan of the President’s speech to Wall Street this last week. His comments, in my interpretation, amount to nothing short of bad news for all long term investors.
Obama, in his speech, said:
Read More...
|
Investing is done successfully by understanding direction, and velocity, not by looking at velocity alone. Velocity (in this simplified context) is the speed and distance a company achieves over time, this may be earnings, profit, sales or margin. Direction is which way the company is pointing, up or down, this speaks to a deep value assessment, or an understanding of the health of the overall business.
If you would like to profit from the stock market I would argue that you as an investor need to have a thorough understanding of each of these elements to truly estimate your risk in any given investment. Too often the analysis of companies is lopsided towards an appreciation of the sheer velocity with little regard to direction.
Read More...
|
 I usually get very excited when I see a stock that is incorrectly priced, this usually indicates a good buying opportunity. Every once in a while a stock comes along that is incorrectly priced the wrong way- namely massively overpriced. So overpriced are these stocks that I am at a complete loss to explain why any investor would buy them. Yahoo in its current state falls firmly in this bucket. In reviewing some of the company’s key stats I was shocked to see the poor condition of the business. Lets look at a few key statistics:
Read More...
|
Anyone who wants to understand how our current economic condition came to be a reality need only watch this movie to appreciate how things came to be such a mess. The pervasive overuse of debt nearly brought the western world to its knees. The question we have to ask is have we learned anything?
|
Benjamin Graham is known as the father of value investing and is probably one of the most well read and studied investor of the 20th century. While his most famous work The Intelligent Investor is read in business schools around the word, not much is known about the man behind the writing. Much of this is due to the quite reserved life that Graham lead and some also to the fact that he existed before the era of the celebrity investor to understand any author’s great works requires some back ground so I present to you these 5 facts about Benjamin Graham:
Read More...
|
|
Advertisement
Advertise Here
|
 Below is our list of the top 10 ‘interesting’ insider trades for the week of 02/09/2009. These are companies that have been selected by the buyingvalue filter application. Read more about our value filters here. The companies selected are those that have cleared the first filter in the last 7 days and are the highest ranked filter 2. See here for more about the current selection criteria.
Read More...
| symbol |
P/E Ratio (TTM) |
P/E Low – Last 5 Yrs. |
Price to Book (MRQ) |
Dividend Yield |
Dividend 5 Year Growth Rate |
EPS – 5 Yr. Growth Rate |
Current Ratio (MRQ) |
|
How good are Presidents at predicting the future of the market? Often times they are down right terrible, the spin in speeches is often more prevalent than the truth. With President Obama’s comments about sunshine being the best disinfectant I thought it would be interested to see how his comments match up to reality.
The following collection represents many of the quotes Obama has made related to the US economy. Green arrows mark those days in the market where President Obama has made a positive comment about the future of the United States, red deltas indicate a day where President Obama has made a negative comment on the future of the economy. Click on the red and green arrows to read the exact quote.
Read More...
|
Below is our list of the top 10 ‘interesting’ insider trades for the week of 26/08/2009. These are companies that have been selected by the buyingvalue filter application. Read more about our value filters here. The companies selected are those that have cleared the first filter in the last 7 days and are the highest ranked filter 2. See here for more about the current selection criteria.
Read More...
| symbol |
P/E Ratio (TTM) |
P/E Low – Last 5 Yrs. |
Price to Book (MRQ) |
Dividend Yield |
Dividend 5 Year Growth Rate |
EPS – 5 Yr. Growth Rate |
Current Ratio (MRQ) |
|
 Executive Compensation is a touchy subject. Some believe executives should be compensated in relation to share price. Others feel that an executive should derive their satisfaction from the growth of their business and not from pulling down a massive salary. Buffett for one is a huge proponent of this approach. He pays himself a comparably paltry $100K salary per year and several of the businesses owned by Berkshire have CEOs who share this same compensation package.
Read More...
|
Advertisement
Advertise Here
|
| « Older Entries |
Newer Entries » |
