3 Key Investment Criteria
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Business, people, and price -- these
are the key considerations in any investment. Mason Hawkins of Longleaf
Funds is the originator of this nifty little summation, but Matt Richey
has adopted it as the framework for his own approach. Strong businesses
run by solid people and purchased at a fair price tend to work out favorably
for shareholders.
By Matt
Richey (TMF Matt)
March 10, 2003
I'm a stock picker, not a philosopher. Nevertheless, I think a little
philosophy is in order before I start kicking the tires of individual
companies -- which is what I'll be doing most every week in the future
of this Monday column.
My hope is that by sharing my investment philosophy with you today, you'll
be in a better position to: (a) know if my approach interests you; (b)
understand the context of my future investment opinions; and, (c) hold
me accountable for this philosophy. On that last point, if you ever see
me highlight a company a good investment, and you think it doesn't fit
the framework I'm about to share with you, then by all means, please email
me at MattR@fool.com. One of the best parts
of writing online is getting your feedback.
So with that, I'll dive into my investment philosophy. Those of you who
read last
week's column have a leg up in understanding some of the key lessons
that have shaped my philosophy over the past seven years. To sum it up,
my approach today is to look for cash-generating businesses run by good
people with a stock price that's significantly undervalued.
No, the business/people/price framework is not
original (credit goes to Mason Hawkins, chairman of Longleaf Funds)
-- but I'm not one to shy away from piggy-backing off others' great ideas!
And while mine is a framework many investors could lay claim to, I think
my approach has certain peculiarities and special emphases that make it
uniquely my own.
1. Business: Generates consistent free cash flow, with every likelihood
of continuing to do so.
Ask a group of investors to describe what makes for a quality business,
and you'll hear answers like: sustainable competitive advantage, reliable
recurring revenues, strong profitability, above-average growth, and high
returns on invested capital. Every one of those things matters, and I'm
on the lookout for each. But, I don't consider any one of those
qualities to be essential in every situation.
Hear me out so you don't misunderstand. In special situations, I'll settle
for lumpy revenues or meager profitability or unimpressive returns on
invested capital. I'll even invest in situations where the competitive
advantage is weak or uncertain. Any one or two of these negative conditions
can be tolerated at the right price, which is to say a very cheap
price.
But the one business characteristic I demand -- without exception, regardless
of price -- is the ability to generate consistent free
cash flow. In simple language, free cash flow is the cash left over
at the end of the day -- after all sales are tallied, all expenses paid,
and all capital upgrades for property and equipment complete. It's the
cash left over for shareholders' benefit.
The best thing about free cash flow is its ability to deliver immediate
and indisputable economic benefit to shareholders (not necessarily "economic
value," as it's technically defined, but definitely economic benefit). Free
cash flow can be used for such goodies as dividends, share repurchases,
or a cash acquisition. Even if a company just lets its cash pile up on
the balance sheet, that cash value will have an additive impact upon the
share price. (That said, I prefer not to see a company hoard its cash
for long, but rather to deploy it for shareholders' benefit by one of
the above three methods.)
Because of the many ways free cash flow can benefit shareholders, even
the most obscure company will eventually be recognized and rewarded by
the market if it's able to generate consistent free cash flow. This is
a more expansive way of saying that the value of free cash flow is intrinsic.
Of course, past free cash flow is good, but what really matters is a
company's ability to generate future free cash flow -- year in
and year out. After all, a company is only worth the discounted value
of all future free cash flows. (If this concept is confusing, I encourage
you to read one of Fooldom's all-time great series: The Dollar Machine,
Part
1, Part
2, Part
3 -- scroll down on each link.)
Take a look at the valuations of any tobacco company as an example of
how the market will not assign much value to yesterday's free cash flow
if there's doubt about tomorrow's free cash flow. On this point, it's
important to consider a company's competitive position and assess whether
any threats exist that might erode its future ability to generate free
cash flow. This can be difficult to gauge, but it's always something to
think about.
2. People: Owner-operators who manage the business ethically and with
a pro-shareholder orientation.
Perhaps the one exception to the intrinsic value of free cash flow
is if management is too unethical or stupid to use free cash flow for
shareholders' benefit. That's why it's so important to pay attention to
the people running the show. Admittedly, it's tough -- very tough, actually
-- to know management and whether its motivations are good. In general,
though, I look for the following qualities:
- Owner-operators: Managers who have meaningful share ownership.
- Ethical and honest: No hype, no shady dealings, and no inconsistencies
in the company's story.
- Pro-shareholder: Reasonable cash compensation and option grants; intelligent
capital allocation in present and past dividends, share buybacks, and
acquisitions.
This is just a summary of what I like to see. Fellow Fool Zeke Ashton
has written a fabulous article, The
High Cost of Bad Management, that explains how to assess management
and what questions to ask. Also on this point, one of the best resources
for finding the dirt on management is the proxy
statement.
3. Price: No more than two-thirds of conservatively estimated intrinsic
value.
By common terminology, I'm a value investor -- but let's make sure
we're on the same page about what that means. Some understand "value"
as equivalent to investing in boring, subpar, no-growth businesses. I
frequently defy that stereotype. Nor do I fall into the strict value camp
of investing in stocks with a P/E less than 7 or a price-to-book ratio
less than 1.
For me, being a value investor means I invest in companies I reasonably
believe to be undervalued. Similarly, I sell stocks once they reach full
value. Whether a stock's value manifests itself in four days or four years,
I don't care. My only aim is to buy assets for less than their worth and
hold them until they're fully valued.
But what makes a stock "undervalued"? I'm a discounted
cash flow (DCF) guy. For most companies I analyze, I'll construct
a DCF spreadsheet where I attempt to conservatively forecast future free
cash flows, and then discount them back to present value. That present
value of the business plus any net cash per share equals the stock's "intrinsic
value" or "fair value." Many times, I'll build a couple of different models
using different growth assumptions to develop a range of intrinsic value
for a stock. Please understand that this involves a lot of guesswork,
so the outcomes aren't scientific.
The key to making these imprecise models worthwhile is to be conservative
in all assumptions and to allow for a margin of safety. For example, if I calculate
a fair value estimate of $20 for a stock based on conservative inputs,
then I'll happily buy that stock for anything less than $13.33. By limiting
my buys to situations in which I pay no more than two-thirds of my estimate
of fair value, then I build in a significant margin of safety. (There's
nothing magic about paying exactly two-thirds of fair value -- that's
just the cutoff I normally use. Sometimes, I'll allow for a smaller margin
of safety when the downside risk is especially low, which happens occasionally
when a stock has substantial liquid asset value.)
Conclusion
There you have it -- my investment philosophy, as it exists today.
Next Monday, I'll put this framework into use as I pick apart some company
or another. I have several on my value radar that I want to get to know
better, plus companies in my
own portfolio that I try to review on a regular basis.
Matt Richey
(MattR@fool.com) is a senior analyst for The Motley Fool. He's not as
young as he looks in that picture up there. For Matt's best Foolish
stock ideas and in-depth analysis that you won't find anywhere else each
month, check out our newsletter, The
Motley Fool Select. The Motley Fool is investors
writing for investors.
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