Value investing is a style of investing which derives its fundamental basis in business ratios. It is a long-term investing method that takes advantage of short-term downturns whether industry or market wide. Upon recovery, the investor simply sells their investment and waits for another downturn.
Sold Wells Fargo Position Yesterday at 10:17 AM, the Value Investment Fund sold its position in Wells Fargo in preparation for two sets of PUTs that the Fund will have to comply with the terms of the PUT contracts. Earlier this year, the Value Investment Fund sold two separate batches of PUTs in Essex Property …
Purchased 100 Shares of Essex Property Trust, Inc. On Friday afternoon, just prior to market closing, this site’s Value Investment Fund purchased 100 shares of Essex Property Trust, Inc. at $221.21 per share. With the $1 per share transaction fee, total investment was $22,221. This transaction acts as an insurance purchased against the existing PUTs …
Purchased 100 Shares of Essex Property Trust, Inc. Read More »
Sold PUTs on Norfolk Southern Railroad This morning, 09/29/22 at 10:37 AM, the Value Investment Fund sold 200 PUTs on Norfolk Southern Railroad at $6.20 netting $5.20 each after transaction fees. These PUTs have a strike price of $145 each and expire on January 19, 2024. The Fund uses options, specifically PUTs, to augment the …
Overall, the Value Investment Fund is performing remarkably well in relation to the balance of the market during the first six months of 2022. This is even with the error associated with the failure to sell Wells Fargo back in second week of January. Overall, the market is down at least 15% as indicated by the DOW; this reflects the top 30 companies. The reality is that the market overall is down about 21% (S&P 500, S&P Composite 1500) since January 1, 2022. The S&P 500 and Composite 1500 are a more conservative comparative indices to this Fund’s selection pool of investments. As stated above, if using the NASDAQ 100, the Fund is simply crushing the market with Fund down 5% and the NASDAQ 100 down 29%.
During May, the Fund expanded the portfolio to include two new positions from among the existing 48 potential investments. The first included three separate tranche purchases of The Walt Disney Company and the second was an opportunity presented when Essex Property Trust, Inc. dropped below its intrinsic value. In addition, the Fund sold two separate option contracts in both positions. The Walt Disney Company position was exercised within a few days of that sale and the current option contract for Essex Property Trust, Inc. remains active. The sale of PUT options (three separate companies) generated $3,019 of realized income after associated transaction fees. Finally, Wells Fargo did issue a dividend worth $271 for the Fund. This dividend sits as a receivable on the books of record as Wells Fargo will pay the dividend during the first week of June.
During the first quarter of 2022, all major indices experienced dramatic retrenchment with the market value of their respective index. At some point during the quarter, most indices had double digit value reduction; the last half of March 2022 saw all of the various types of funds recover from the low points earlier in the quarter. However, this site’s Value Investment Fund experienced continued growth. This is the result of exercising highly selective buys that reduce risk dramatically. In turn, this risk reduction principle minimizes any type of potential loss associated with an economic wide downturn.
President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of McDonald’s Inc. said it best in the earnings call in late January 2022, we are “… witnessing the beginning of the next great chapter at McDonald’s, …”. He continued with “2021 was a record-setting year for McDonald’s on many dimensions, …” Simply put, McDonald’s had the best financial performance ever in its history during 2021. It just didn’t marginally exceed records, McDonald’s dramatically surpassed all financial records in its entire history. McDonald’s was already the standard bearer in the informal-eating-out industry; it took this standard to a whole new level. When a company has net profits of more than 20%, it is labeled a ‘darling’; over 25%, it is just unheard of financial results; in 2021, McDonald’s net profit was greater than 32%. This sets such a high standard for fast-food restaurants; it is unlikely to be matched by others – EVER.
When a company performs to this level, intrinsic value soars. Intrinsic value is built on a company’s inherent worth. The more stable and reliable a company, the greater the intrinsic value for that company. The reason is simple, the discount rate used with evaluating earnings improves because management demonstrates that it can indeed perform and in this case, perform at exceptional levels.
What is even more fascinating is this:
If you look at McDonald’s balance sheet, total assets on 12/31/21 are $53.8 Billion; total liabilities are $58.4 Billion. McDonald’s has a NEGATIVE EQUITY POSITION OF $4.6 BILLION. You read that correctly. In simple layman’s terminology, this is called ‘Bankrupt’. Every business textbook used in college defines bankruptcy as liabilities exceeding assets. This makes McDonald’s performance just that more impressive. They are so solid, even creditors ignore this situation and will still loan money to McDonald’s. During 2021, McDonald’s was able to acquire long-term loans totaling $1.154 Billion. To further validate the incredible worthiness of McDonald’s, from page 57 of their filed SEC Form 10-K (annual report), “There are no provisions in the Company’s debt obligations that would accelerate repayment of debt as a result of a change in credit ratings or a material adverse change in the Company’s business.” You can only count on one hand the number of companies that have this level of credit.
McDonald’s is financially rock solid.
There are about a dozen popular investment strategies. Two of them stand out in the crowd as the best due to similar standards of research required; they are value and growth investing. From these two top tier investment methods, which investment strategy is superior, value or growth investing?
Many that are unfamiliar with investing consider value and growth investing as synonymous. The truth is, both are starkly different. First, both have a completely different approach towards risk. Secondly, one places greater emphasis on holding the investment for extended periods of time. A third difference relates to the reliability of the supporting information when researching the potential investments. Finally, one of the methods has a superior dividends payout ratio over the other.
This article will delve into these four distinct differences and how they play into results. When done, the reader should be able to quantify the value each provides depending on the mindset of the investor. Before getting into the four core differences, readers should understand the emphasis each form of investing has in order to discriminate the four core differences.
Novice and unsophisticated investors place greater reliance on net profits over the balance sheet to determine intrinsic value. However, most so-called experts forget what intrinsic value means; intrinsic value refers to the universally accepted core value of a company. In many cases, this can be easily derived from the balance sheet. If not derived from the balance sheet, the balance sheet can act as additional assurance that certain intrinsic value formulas are superior and best suited given the balance sheet information.
Understanding how a balance sheet is laid out, works and reports this information greatly assists value investors with determining intrinsic value. Gaining knowledge about balance sheet fundamentals takes a value investor to the next level of comprehension of value investing.
This is the second part in a series about intrinsic value. It is the first in a four-part series about the balance sheet and different intrinsic value formulas that are tied to the balance sheet. The next lesson in this balance sheet series delves deep into analysis of asset matrixes and proper interpretation of that information. It also includes how to tie the asset matrix to the liability layout. Understanding this relationship allows the value investor to apply certain intrinsic value formulas which are explained and illustrated.
This site’s Value Investment Fund continues to dominate major indices year to date 2022. This is due to the primary principle of risk reduction tied to investments. When a value investor buys a security at less than intrinsic value, there is dramatic resilience against continued losses or sudden market downturns. In effect, there is less volatility. In exchange for this increased security, the value investor gives up instantaneous value growth due to the greater than normal stability of the respective investments. The secret to making a profit is to buy low and wait patiently for the market price recovery; the returns are still considered outstanding. Again, with value investing, expect returns above 30% on average per year. Do not expect returns greater than 40% as these are highly stable companies and well respected; thus, their market prices will rarely deviate dramatically in either direction.
