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Book of Value - The Fine Art of Investing Wisely 2016(Anurag Sharma)
https://bbs.pinggu.org/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=6303889&from^^uid=109341(Page 154-175)
阅读到的有价值的内容段落摘录
Seek for high yield, stable and strong growing investment
Remember that our baseline assumption when evaluating stocks is that the markets are pricing them more or less correctly. That is, we write the base expectation as No: Price = Value. Based on our inability to refute the Walmart undervaluation thesis as in the previous chapter, our investment thesis for Walmart still stands as
T: Price << Value
So, we tentatively accept our original hunch that the stock may be an attractive opportunity and now subject our thesis to further disconfirmation analysis based on additional financial data.
Note that here we are using a nonstatistical variant of Popper’s method. In the context of the hard sciences, we typically first develop a null hypothesis based on whatever theory (or belief) we may be testing and then go about trying to reject the null using carefully collated data. In investment analysis of the sort we are doing here, every situation is one-off, and we rarely, if ever, have repeat observations when evaluating a single investment. Instead of using formal statistical
techniques, therefore, we use the broader principle of negation to make cautious data-driven judgments. Note also that, technically, we are supposed to try to reject the null because it embodies the belief we have about the truth in a given situation. Since the investment thesis
is a hunch or emerging belief about the appropriateness of a particular stock or asset, it acquires the character of a null, and that is, therefore, what we try to refute. In the next stage of trying to refute the investment thesis, we formalize three subtheses and evaluate those using additional batteries of empirical tests. Note that we examine these subtheses after we have already found ourselves unable to refute the main investment thesis using the implied growth rates. If any of the tests succeed in refuting one or more subthesis, we will have cast doubt on our original hunch
and will then have to carry that doubt into all subsequent analyses. If we are unable to refute any of the three subtheses, we gain greater confidence in the main thesis—and can proceed to qualitative evaluations (discussed in later chapters).
First, with the yield tests, we ask whether the company in question is generating sufficient earnings. We try to refute the notion that the immediate return we would receive from following through on the thesis is better than putting our money in the bank or in corporate or treasury bonds, or perhaps in another stock. To that end, these tests require that we compute earnings, cash flow, and dividend yields.
Second, with the stability tests, we try to refute the notion that the past performance of the company was stable. That is, we question the ability of the company to continue delivering the expected results through our investment time horizon. We assess stability using patterns
in the historical financial and operating ratios.
Finally, with the strength tests, we try to refute the notion that the company is financially strong. We assess the financial strength of the company from an evaluation of its balance sheet, using a series of leverage and liquidity ratios.
Cash Flow Yields
By accounting convention, the $5.05 EPS are the company’s best estimate after it has deducted all expenses and taxes from the revenues. These earnings need to be translated using additional accounting conventions to see how much cash the company actually generated. Of the cash earnings, the company usually puts some back into the business in order to maintain the quality of assets and the ability to continue generating earnings. The remaining cash earnings, or free cash flow, then rightfully belong to the shareholders even if the company decides not to distribute them. The company may use the cash it retains for other purposes such as retiring debt, repurchasing shares in the open market, or making investments in new growth opportunities. These free cash flows are theoretically the correct dividend owed to you as a shareholder and, therefore, the correct yields for analysis.
阅读到的有价值信息的自我思考点评感想
- though, we can operationalize the process for the quantitative evaluation of stocks and either cast doubt on or develop a degree of confidence in the investment thesis. Starting in the next chapter, we go beyond quantitative analysis to develop a systematic process for further trying to disconfirm the thesis using qualitative information. The ability to make sound subjective judgments about the defining narratives of the companies under scrutiny will be of particular importance.
The amount of information you will encounter is likely to be overwhelming. You will quickly learn that the big problem of analysis is not the lack of information but too much of it; this information is also likely to be unstructured and unorganized. It’s easy to get lost in the mass of data that companies are required to report, with reporting itself sometimes becoming convoluted and confusing. Moreover, there is problem that the reliability of information may not be good for all companies in particular for those in HK or China. As there are still many of the listed companies manipulate their reporting data.
- Instead of quantitatively refuting a clearly articulated investment thesis, we are looking for qualitative or narrative data that may help disconfirm the investment thesis. Because the judgments made in doing so are based on personal interpretations of qualitative data, you may not be able to clearly “hard” refute the thesis. The intent here is still to cast doubt to such an extent that disconfirmation is all but obvious.
- The approach still is to interpret conservatively and to disconfirm the emerging beliefs based (by this time) on the previously executed but unsuccessful quantitative tests designed to refute the investment thesis. The skills necessary for the next stage of analysis favor journalists over mathematicians, poets over quants. The objective of the qualitative analysis is to try to cast doubt on the defining narratives of the company. We will try to do so on three broad fronts.
- First, if we have thus far been unable to refute the thesis on financial strength, we now want to use the quantitative data reported in the footnotes to the financial statements (as opposed to those in the tables) to disconfirm that the company has few or no obligations other than interest-bearing debt that is visible in the balance sheet. We must also evaluate such data to make a qualitative inference about the operations of the company. We want to check that not just debt but the overall financial burdens of the company are manageable and that its assets are in good order.
- Second, if we have thus far been unable to clearly refute the thesis using the stability tests, we now want to try to disconfirm the ability of the company to continue on its historical trajectory. As such, we try to discredit the business model of the company and question its ability to deliver consistent performance and growth in the near future.
- Finally, if we have thus far been unable to refute the company using the yield tests, we now want to disconfirm the proposition that the company is in an opportunity-rich environment and that it has suitable leadership in place to sustain the business and navigate through the uncertainties that inevitably lie ahead.
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