April 30, 2005 – Minyanville.com This is what I want to see from a bank in our portfolios: growing assets – a source of loans, growing checking accounts – a source of free (cheap) funds, growth of fees – provides stable income, which is not sensitive to interest rate volatility. In addition I would like [...]
April 29, 2005 – Minyanville As “the Ugly†and “the Bad†dominated the performance for Arthur J Gallagher & Co (AJG) this quarter, at least on the surface, and as such we will address them first: The Ugly: Only 4% of the 12% revenue growth was organic, the rest came from acquisitions. In the brokerage [...]
April 26 2005 – Financial Times For a company to find a place in our clients’ portfolios it has to have three crucial ingredients: growth, quality and value. Not compromising, and thus avoiding marginal investments, is a true test of discipline – I would opt to hold cash over a marginal stock any time. As [...]
March 26, 2005 – Minyanville.com The Good: Sales were up 6% (excluding sales from Neenah paper which was spun off recently), on constant currency sales that were up 3%. Days sales outstanding is down to 2 days due to an investment in SAP software – that will help cash flows. KMB returned back $500 mm [...]
April 14, 2004 – Minyanville Blockbuster drugs have changed the risk profile of many pharmaceutical companies. But then again not all pharmaceutical companies are created equal. The only pharmaceutical company that we hold company wide is Abbott Labs (ABT). It has all the characteristics of the major pharmaceutical company: very strong balance sheet, great cash [...]
April 11 2005 – Financial Times Most of the latest accounting scandals have taken place with successful and highly regarded companies, not the John Does of the corporate world, but the icons of corporate America. Is that a coincidence? Not at all. We live in a finite world where infinite supernormal growth of earnings is [...]
April 2, 2005 – Minyanville.com Editor’s Note: With this article Minyanville is proud to welcome Vitaliy Katsenelson to the ‘Ville. Mr. Katsenelson holds a CFA and has worked in the asset management industry since 1995. He is currently vice president and portfolio manager with Investment Management Associates Inc., a private portfolio management firm based in [...]