Sometimes, I wish media outlets like CNBC could stop looking at the topic of the day, which these days is a laser-like focus on Greece, and maybe report on something real. How long now has the investment public had to deal with end-of-the world scenarios coming out of Europe? With everyone focused on economies...
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Positioning Statements and Principles We don’t believe in investing in the stock market. Instead, we believe in investing in great businesses. Therefore, we tend to focus more on how the business is performing on an operating basis than we do on stock price volatility. In other words, we are most interested in whether...
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The Problem A spate of frightening headlines has led to two troubling declines in financial instruments. The first, of course, is the decline in equity prices that has everyone worried about their financial futures. This drop in stock price is in everybody’s face and therefore commands prime time attention by the media. Of course,...
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There’s certainly no shortage of pundits, prognosticators and even self-proclaimed prophets ready and willing to bombard us with dire forecasts about our future. We get a day in the market like Monday, August 8, 2011, and “Chicken Little” shows up everywhere to include radio, television, newspapers, magazines and the Internet. Yet somehow, we survive...
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Illinois Tool Works (ITW) is a diversified industrial manufacturer with a history of growth through innovation, and through acquisitions. A quote from their introductory video sums up Illinois Tool Works’ business units very nicely: “if it’s wrapped, scrapped, fastened or welded; built, connected, balanced, or sliced; decorated, packaged, labeled or protected; chances are Illinois...
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Introduction Both Visa, Inc. (V) and MasterCard, Inc. (MA) enjoyed explosive moves in their stock values on Wednesday, June 29, 2011. Visa was up over 15% and MasterCard over 11% thanks to the Fed’s more liberal-than-expected stance on debit fee regulations. In our opinion, this perceived regulatory overhang had caused the share prices of...
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