Dun & Bradstreet: Wide Moat, Low Price?

Dun & Bradstreet (DNB) has been discussed on a few value sites in the last couple of years, including Magic Diligence and Gurufocus. As recently noted by Geoff Gannon, however, the company's stock price has taken a recent dive, which could make for a good buying opportunity.

The Guardian Of Your Money

Guardian Capital Group (GCG) is in an unfavoured industry, which could offer long-term investors an opportunity to profit. As discussed previously, the market has soured on the business of money-management. A recent article in a mainstream newspaper discussed Guardian as a potential deep value play, noting that it's substantial assets plus its operating business are worth substantially more than what the market is willing to pay for them at the moment.

Buffett's Housing Effect

Warren Buffett has said on numerous occasions that what is preventing the US economy from recovering to its full potential is the housing overhang. Let's take a look at what he may mean. Consider this chart depicting US construction jobs as a percentage of total employment:

Old Tricks For NewLead

Investing in a company that is managed by the person who controls it is a bit of a mixed bag for investors. It's great when management has skin in the game, but not-so-great when management abuses its control at the expense of minority shareholders. Consider what happened in the case of NewLead (NEWL), where management not only controls the equity, but also has a significant stake (in fact, larger than its equity stake) in the company's debt.

Thinking, Fast and Slow: Chapters 16, 17 and 18

Nobel Prize recipient Daniel Kahneman authors this book on the behavioural sciences. Combining his own lifelong research with that of many other leaders in the field, he discusses some of the systematic mental glitches we experience that cause us to stray from rationality, often completely unbeknownst to us. Thinking, Fast and Slow is full of illustrative experiments and examples that you can even try on yourself!

Thinking, Fast and Slow: Chapters 13, 14 and 15

Nobel Prize recipient Daniel Kahneman authors this book on the behavioural sciences. Combining his own lifelong research with that of many other leaders in the field, he discusses some of the systematic mental glitches we experience that cause us to stray from rationality, often completely unbeknownst to us. Thinking, Fast and Slow is full of illustrative experiments and examples that you can even try on yourself!

Buffett On Quarterly Fears

Warren Buffett has stressed many times that investor focus on quarterly earnings beats/misses is bad for both investors and companies. Rather than focus on the long-term, managers with such shareholders are implicitly encouraged to take all sorts of actions (e.g. cutting R&D expenditures) that increase short-term earnings at the expense of the company's future. At Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting one year, Buffett pointed to a study (titled "Quadrophobia") that provides statistical evidence that suggests that the focus of management on short-term earnings is rather pervasive.