2023

Happy new year everyone! The start of the new year is a time to reflect on the past and look ahead to the future. 2022 was a tumultuous year for investing, with markets experiencing volatility and interest rates climbing rapidly. These factors contributed to a decline in asset prices. While the Federal Reserve’s efforts to curb inflation seem to be having some effect, there is no guarantee that the situation will improve. In fact, it is possible that interest rates may continue to rise, putting even more strain on the economy.

It is worth noting that while prices have fallen, there has not yet been a corresponding decrease in earnings. In times of uncertainty, investors and companies tend to become more conservative, focusing on cost-cutting and efficiency rather than growth. This can have a ripple effect on individuals and businesses throughout the economy, as people reduce their spending on non-essential items and industries that rely on consumer spending struggle.

For example, the housing market has been hit hard by the recent increase in interest rates. With monthly mortgage payments now much higher than they were a year ago, potential homebuyers are hesitant to make a purchase. This has led to a significant drop in home sales, which has had a knock-on effect on industries such as real estate, mortgage brokering, and home inspection. As those who work in these fields see their incomes decline, they may be forced to cut back on their own spending, which can then impact other businesses.

It is important to be aware of these potential impacts and to be prepared for any scenario. Building up your savings and making smart investment decisions are always good ideas, and the new year is a great time to review your financial goals and assess whether you are on track to achieve them.

Let’s take a look at my 2022 investing results:

Q4 Performance

As of 1/1/2023, my 10K portfolio is worth $14,419.07. When I started on 8/19/18, the SPY had a price of $285.06 and my account started with $10,000. As of 1/1/2023 the SPY had a price of $382.43. In reality, the SPY has done even better due to dividends given out, so I have accounted for dividend reinvestment in the return calculation

	10K Return(1)	SPY Return(2)	Difference(1-2)
2018(8/19-12/31)	(13.95)	(13.71)	(.24)
2019	37.33	32.6	4.73
2020	21.22	17.59	3.63
2021	38.55	28.43	10.12
2022(1/1-12/31)	(27.25)	(18.65)	(8.60)
Since Inception(8/19/18)	44.19	44.58	(.39)
CAGR	8.72	8.82	(.1)

While my portfolio underperformed the S&P 500 in 2022, I am happy to see that it has remained relatively close to the index since its inception. Despite the challenges of investing, I am confident in the composition of my portfolio and believe that it will perform well over time. It’s important to remember that investing can be tough, and it’s important to stay humble and cautious. As Warren Buffett has pointed out, as long-term investors, we should actually be hoping for stock prices to go down so that we can buy more shares at lower prices and increase our ownership stakes in the long run.

Transactions

MCO- I sold my shares of Moody’s in early October. This has little to do with the long term prospects of the business, they are still top notch. They will continue dominating their corner of the market, I just thought shares were too expensive and there were better opportunities elsewhere.

ETSY- I also trimmed my Etsy position, selling off 3 of my 7 shares. I still like the company, but will admit to losing some faith. I think they operate a great business and could have robust growth in their future, but I question management capital allocation. They spent an exorbitant amount buying smaller companies like Depop and Elo7. Maybe these will be good businesses, but they paid ludicrous multiples to buy. Now that the market has tumbled, these acquisitions just look awful. I want to see management commentary after this upcoming quarter, but if I don’t feel confident, I will be selling off the rest of my shares.

POOL- I bought a single share of Pool Corp in mid December. Pool is the leading distributor of swimming pool supplies and parts. They sell to contractors, pool retailers and pool owners amongst a myriad of others. Distribution is a fantastic business and Pool is second to none. They have fantastic returns on capital and have a lengthy record of consistent success. Simple but immensely profitable business model.

AMZN- I presume Amazon needs no introduction, but until recently,I had never held any shares. The stock saw a sharp drawdown in 2022, down almost 50% from the start of the year, presenting myself and others with a potentially great opportunity. I think the market is being shortsighted and Amazon is a business unlike any other. They are simply the most dominant business in the world and the one I would least like to compete against. They invest heavily into their business, spending $66B in R&D and $66B in CapEx in 2022. That is a wild amount of money spent in order to widen their moat. Just imagine how dominant they will be 10 years from now. I think they know exactly what they are doing, time will tell.

AMAT- I decided to pick up another share of Applied Materials in mid December after the stock had fallen 10% in a single day on the back of no real news. I’ve held shares in the company for a bit of time now, so picking up an additional share was a no brainer. Great business with fantastic execution and discipline.

As always, I would like to thank you for taking the time to give this a read! Feel free to leave some comments or questions. Best way to reach me is on Twitter, follow me @TheGarpInvestor.

Q3 Update

2020 has been a remarkably odd time to be an investor. Granted, it has been an incredibly strange time to be alive in general. It is now October and Covid continues to rage on, a seemingly never ending storm without respite. Our President just tested positive for the virus and has entered the hospital. He has the best medical care and will therefore almost assuredly be fine, but you never know. The word has been used over and over, but that is because it rings true, these are unprecedented times. I think we would all like to just get this chapter over and move on with our lives. With an election right around the corner however, I expect more volatility to be on the horizon. I’m not one to make market forecasts, but I would not be surprised to see some pretty big swings in the near future.

Q3 Performance

As of 10/1/2020, my 10K portfolio stood at $13,047.01. When I started on 8/19/18, the SPY had a price of $285.06 and my account started with $10,000. As of 10/1/2020 the SPY had a price of $334.89. In reality, the SPY has done even better due to dividends given out, so I have accounted for dividend reinvestment in the return calculations.

	10K Return(1)	SPY Return(2)	Difference(1-2)
2018(8/19-12/31)	(13.95)	(13.71)	(.24)
2019	37.33	32.6	4.73
2020(1/1-9/30)	10.41	5.32	5.09
Since Inception(8/19/18)	30.47	21.85	8.62

As we can see, I have done reasonably well in both 2020 and overall. I am by no means crushing the index, but a steady outperformance compounded over years can grow into a massive delta. If I can keep beating the S&P by 4-5% a year, I will be thrilled. So far, my GARP strategy has worked. I hope my portfolio keeps up the momentum, but don’t be surprised to see some reversion to the mean.

My stocks are now worth $12,778.29 and I am sitting on an additional $268.72 of cash, meaning I am almost fully invested. The market does appear to be frothy in my opinion, but in general I like to have my money invested rather than sitting on the sidelines. Should the market fall, I expect my companies to make intelligent capital allocation decisions, coming in the form of share buybacks or acquisitions of target companies at lower prices.

BUYS

INTC– I saw someone on Twitter(I would give credit, but I don’t remember who) mention that Intel shares looked attractive given current prices. I decided to take a look and based on numbers alone I liked what I saw. Problem was, the semiconductor industry was well outside of my circle of competence. I then went on to do a mini deep dive and educate myself. Admittedly, I will never be a semiconductor expert, far from it. But I think I have learned enough to be able to assess the competitive dynamics, time will tell if I am right or wrong.

So why the Intel discount, what’s the rub? Intel has been perceived to be in a losing CPU race against smaller faster competitors, AMD and Nvidia. They have the advantage of being fabless, in other words they do not manufacture chips themselves. Rather they design the chips and outsource manufacturing, mostly to TSMC, the Taiwanese semiconductor giant. TSMC brings fantastic technology to the table, enabling the smaller competitors to leapfrog over Intel in ultra high performance technology. This perception very well may be correct, but I feel it fails to paint the full picture. Intel is now so diversified that they are no longer completely reliant on the microprocessor. The second quarter of 2020 marked the first time that the data center portion of the business overtook the CPU portion, accounting for 52% of overall revenue. Data centric revenue was up 34% YoY. Certainly doesn’t look like a company on the brink of death to me.

Intel likely did take their eye off the ball and let competitors catch up in areas they previously held complete dominance. While Intel used to be a microprocessor company, they now are involved in so many different lines of business. Their focus has shifted to data, which they estimate to have a total TAM of $230 billion by 2030 according to this past quarter’s earnings transcript. This is significantly higher than the PC market TAM and Intel has therefore made it into the priority.

At the end of the day, Intel is still an incredible business that spins off loads of cash that can then be reinvested back into the business. In 2019, they spent 16.2B on CapEx and an additional 13.3B on R&D. That is 29.9B being spent on innovation and improvement, almost 3x what Nvidia and 5x what AMD did in total 2019 revenue. Intel trades at around 13x expected 2020 FCF, a deep discount to the rest of the market. I expect the company to continue to make use of their vast resources to invest in the future. Simultaneously, they will continue to pay out increasing dividends, make accretive acquisitions and opportunistically buyback shares.

CBOE- This one is a little less controversial and much less discussed on the Twitter-sphere. CBOE, which started as the Chicago Board Options Exchange but now goes by CBOE Global Markets, operates as a market maker, creating a marketplace for options and futures as well as a global stock exchange. It is a brilliant business model, they take none of the risk, but rather create the rails for others to work on. They exhibit classic GARP characteristics that I like to see, high return on invested capital and a capital light business. The business requires very little reinvestment, which allows the company to use their cash flow elsewhere. In 2019, they generated operating cash flow of $632 million. CapEx for the year was a mere $35 million. This left just under $600 million to be used in value creating activities. For instance in 2017, CBOE made a $3.2 billion acquisition of BATS Global Markets that has really bolstered the company. Since then, top line, bottom line and FCF have all grown considerably. I expect more large acquisitions in the future.

There is actually a whole group of companies working within this greater marketplace industry that exhibit superior economics. Just some examples are CME, Intercontinental Exchange and Market Axess. I happen to like CBOE the most at the moment given current prices, but they are all great companies. Should an opportunity come available, I could see myself owning one or more of these companies in the future. I’m actually surprised I have never seen Warren Buffett play in this sandbox. Seems to be right up his alley, but he has his reasons.

As always, I would like to thank you for taking the time out of your day to give this a read! Feel free to leave some comments or questions. Follow me on Twitter @TheGarpInvestor.

Q1 Update

Well that was a doozy! We just finished the quarter in what has easily been the scariest investing environment I have ever faced. In fact, it has probably been the most frightening time for any investor, young or old. Unfortunately, the situation we all face isn’t close to being over. I don’t know how long this will last, nor do I know how devastating the consequences will be. The best we can do is hold strong and remain ever vigilant waiting ready for opportunities.

As for my own investing performance… it has been rather putrid. I have scolded myself many times in the last few weeks for not keeping more cash on the sidelines. This was a rookie mistake and I own up to it. I just personally hate sitting on cash, I enjoy owning partial shares of some of the world’s greatest businesses. Cash can’t compound, it sits idly losing value due to inflation. It does however provide a lifeline should an opportunity come knocking. If there is no cash available, you either have to watch it go by or tap into a margin balance, which I personally refuse to do.

While the future looks grim, now is not the time to panic. These kinds of events are what separate novices from those who outperform. This crisis will shuffle money from the know nothing investor, to those who have done their homework. It will expose those who made use of excess amounts of leverage and those who bet on companies that lack durable competitive advantages. As Warren Buffett put it “You don’t know who’s swimming naked until the tide pulls in.” Everyone looks great during a bull market, it is only when the bear roars that the score is settled. This can be applied not only to investors, but to companies as well. Some are prepared for these kinds of situations and can prosper, others will be forced into bankruptcy.

For that reason, I try and invest into companies that perform well in all economic conditions, feast or famine. A strong balance sheet is imperative. It is hard to go broke if you don’t owe any money. Cash is king and I prefer companies acting like a dragon sitting on a hoard of gold, protecting that cash at all costs. You can bet a company such as Berkshire Hathaway won’t be filing chapter 11 and instead will be using this occurrence as an entry point into outstanding businesses.

Q1 Performance

As of 4/1/2020, my 10K portfolio stood at $9,700.23. When I started on 8/19/18, the SPY had a price of $285.06 and my account started with $10,000. As of 4/1/2020 the SPY had a price of $257.75. The SPY has also given out $8.44 in dividends since I started tracking, so I have accounted for that as well.

10K Return(1) SPY Return(2) Difference(1-2)

2018(8/19-12/31) (13.95) (13.71) (.24)

2019 37.33 32.6 4.73

2020(1/1-3/31) (17.91) (19.92) 2.01

Since Inception(8/19/18) (2.99) (6.62) 3.63

As you can see, I have actually beaten the S&P since the inception of this account, albeit I have done so while still losing money. I therefore find no sense of accomplishment in this feat. If the S&P was to fall 50% over a 10 year period while my own account only fell by 35%, I’m not going to be happy. The ultimate point is to make money, not just outperform an index.

Current Portfolio

Here is an updated look at my portfolio as of 3/31/20

Screenshot 2020-04-07 at 5.50.41 PM

We can see I have $9,652.61 invested and have an additional $47.62 in cash. I made some changes to my portfolio this quarter, time will tell if any of these were good ideas.

Buys

CNSWF- I invested into Constellation Software, which has immediately become my largest holding. The company acquires small companies that provide vertical market software to niche customers such as dentists, fitness centers and hospitals. They serve customers in virtually every market you can think of. They own hundreds of businesses and have extremely high customer retention. Constellation is a company I have followed for years and given a large fall, I became a happy buyer. Of course right after purchasing, the stock continued to plummet. I could have gotten a much better price, so be it. They are run by Mark Leonard, a brilliant capital allocator with an amazing beard. I have great confidence holding this company indefinitely.

HEI.A- I also bought shares of Heico corporation. They have a dual class structure, so I bought into the A shares, seeing that they traded at a discount to the standard shares. They offer only 1/10th the voting power, but given how small a position I hold, I find this to be immaterial. Heico is a niche supplier of airplane parts. They are a fantastic company that has fallen greatly due to the decimation of the travel market. While I was initially thrilled by the drop in price, I may have acted in haste, not fully appreciating how long the impact of the virus will last. I will continue to monitor the situation, but am considering getting out. I don’t like quick in and outs, but sometimes you can get lured in on false hope. The travel market might be impacted for years to come, I’m hoping that is not the case but who knows at this point. If people aren’t flying, planes won’t need new or replacement parts. Even a great business with a pristine balance sheet can get into trouble if sales fall off a cliff for years.

Sell

BKNG- For the very reason I am considering selling out of Heico, I have already sold out of my position in Booking Holdings. They are a fabulous company, but the impact of the virus on their business is immense. They make their money selling hotel rooms, car rentals and airline tickets. It is a brilliant business model, they take on none of the heavy lifting and merely act as an agent. As long as this pandemic lasts however, their entire business has essentially been cut to 0. They have a strong balance sheet and smart management, so I have no doubt they will weather the storm. I just can’t predict how this will impact their bottom line and for how long. I wouldn’t be surprised if I one day get back into the company. I’m not comfortable holding them right now, but that won’t always be the case.

Hold???

LUV- I haven’t made a decision on Southwest yet. Just like the last two companies I discussed, Southwest’s business has been crushed by this pandemic. I am loath to get out of an industry leader that is trading at a deep discount to prices seen just a few months ago, but my hands might be tied. The company just announced they are cutting 50% of flights through the end of June. Don’t be surprised if they are forced to cut flights deep into the summer or longer. Will Southwest need to be a part of the government bailout? Maybe, I honestly don’t know and I’m also not sure what kind of stipulations will come as part of such an agreement. No dividends or stock buybacks? That would really impact the investment potential. I’m weighing all these variables, but might pull the trigger soon and sell. I also notice I have allocated too heavily into the travel industry. I did not foresee this kind of crisis impacting so many of the companies I invested in, but I have to play the hand that is dealt. I need to make sure I diversify better so one industry can’t bring me down.

As always, thank you all for reading! This is a strange and difficult time. I invest to make money, not to watch it wash away. Let’s hope the rest of 2020 sees a return to normal and we can all start leaving our houses again. You can follow me on Twitter @TheGarpInvestor.

COVID-19

Fear, agony, depression, anger, and desperation are just a few of the feelings creeping through my mind over the last couple of weeks. As I’m sure you are aware, the market has gone into free fall and the world is in a true state of panic. Coronavirus has spread and brought the world down to its knee. I know things look grim, but as always when investing, it is best to remove emotion from the process. Take a deep breath, go for a walk, whatever you need to do to get yourself into the right mindset.

One mantra I have been repeating over and over is an ancient Persian proverb, This Too Shall Pass. Things look terrible, but the world will one day return to something that resembles normal. In America, we have gotten through the great depression, the financial recession, two world wars, a civil war, four presidential assassinations and once came on the brink of mutually assured nuclear destruction. I have confidence that in time we will overcome and get through this pandemic. We will look back on this as one of those events that we will never forget. This too shall pass.

I don’t say that to minimize the current state of affairs. This is an extremely serious situation that has ramifications felt in all walks of life. Our economy has essentially been put on hold and our most vulnerable citizens are left scared and hopeless. Unfortunately innocent people who did nothing wrong will die. Our hospitals will be strained far beyond capacity. People will lose their jobs and companies previously thought to be impenetrable will fold and go out of business. All we can do is persevere and make the best out of a terrible situation.

Peak to trough, markets have fallen roughly 35%. If your accounts have taken a massive hit, do not feel alone, everyone is suffering. I myself am suffering right along with you. It pains me to my core watching my money wash away. Across the nation, the sense of freedom and security has disappeared in the blink of an eye. Many have lost a significant portion of their retirement savings. I am lucky enough to be somewhat young and hopefully have a long runway ahead of me, but I sympathize with those who don’t. For those who plan to be net buyers of stocks in the coming decades, the only positive way to spin this is knowing that you can now buy stocks today at a 35% discount to what they were just a few weeks ago. I know that doesn’t make it any better, but it is now more important than ever to keep investing.

At some point in the future, there will be a resolution. I don’t know if that will be a month, a year or even many years from now, but eventually we will know where things stand and how the COVID-19 virus played out. In the end, this situation can really only go one of two ways. Either things will ultimately recover and return to normal or our entire world order will collapse and our financial system will turn to ruin. In the first situation, patience and delayed gratification are crucial. In the second, financial assets will cease to matter. Human society will have broken down, so what’s the difference? Who cares what stocks you own or cash you have if the entire system has collapsed? I happen to think the second scenario is incredibly unlikely, but just my 2 cents.

So the question is, how can we make the best out of this awful situation as an investor? Below I have listed 5 actionable steps we can all take.

5 Actionable Steps

Stop Panicking- Easier said than done, but panic provides no benefit. Calm, rational well thought out decision making will always win. Now is the time to start formulating a game plan. Most of us have been quarantined and are stuck at home. You have an abundance of time, make use of it. Take this as an opportunity to learn and grow. Determine what your goals are and how you can reach them.
Give Gratitude- I find myself to be a bit useless at times like these. Other than giving away money, I have no ability to save anyone. I do not have the necessary skills for these kinds of disaster situations. For that reason I find it especially important to be thankful. There are men and women out there on the front lines risking their lives in order to give care to those who fall ill. Thank the doctors, nurses, hospital staff and administrators, emergency responders and anyone else who is out there providing vital relief. They are not the only ones putting themselves at risk however. Thank the cashiers at the grocery store, thank the delivery driver who drops off a package so you don’t have to leave the house, thank the bar and restaurant workers providing you with food to go. There are countless other brave souls out there potentially exposing themselves to the virus, making sure our society continues to function. Thank them!
DO NOT SELL!- The absolute worst thing you can do is to sell out in the middle of a panic. It truly sucks watching your stocks go down every day. I hate it as much as you do, but you never know when the tide will turn. I am not in the game of timing the market. The market will likely recover long before we see the end of the virus. It will turn when sentiment burns bright. I’ll leave it up to Peter Lynch to describe it better than I can. “A stock market decline is as routine as a January blizzard in Colorado. If you’re prepared, it can’t hurt you. A decline is a great opportunity to pick up the bargains left behind by investors who are fleeing the storm in a panic.”
Look To The Greats- We may not immediately know what some of the best investors out there are currently doing, but we can at least attempt to put ourselves into their shoes. Even better, what would they do if they were in our own shoes? If Warren Buffett wasn’t handicapped by Berkshire’s massive size and the public scrutiny that comes along with all of his decisions, how would he proceed?. I can’t tell you exactly, but I would imagine he would be turning over every rock trying to find the diamond in the rough. He would be looking for great companies with a strong moat, that have fallen to a price far beneath their intrinsic value.
Put Your Research Into Overdrive- As an investor, this is probably the most important step. Everything else you do is all for naught if you don’t put in the work. Populate your watch list, start reading 10Ks and sift through as many balance sheets as you can. As for myself, I plan on taking a look at every company within the S&P 500. I’ve gotten to the point where it only takes me about 30 seconds to know if I might have interest in a company. If I do, more work needs to be done, but otherwise I Just pass on to the next one. After that I’ll start using screeners to help me find smaller companies not located within the S&P. This might feel like a daunting task, but truth be told, you don’t get the reward without the process. When the time comes, you will be ready to pounce.

I know this time is challenging and things are likely to get worse, but remember This Too Shall Pass

Thanks for reading. I’ll be back sometime next week to give you my Q1 portfolio update. Sneak Peak: It’s bad! You can follow me on Twitter @TheGarpInvestor.

Goodbye Summer (Q3 Update)

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Summer came and went in the blink of an eye. Labor day weekend is now well behind us and so are any hopes I once had of not gaining a good 15 lbs over the Summer. A couple of trips and way too many burgers and beers are probably the primary culprits. I hope you all got to enjoy the summer heat as much as I did.

September however brings a new level of excitement. Kids are back in school and if they are forced to learn, we should be as well. We are all mere students of the game and therefore we need to work on our investing practice. A day doesn’t go by where you cannot learn something, so seize hold of the opportunity. A little bit of knowledge every day, will turn into a mountain of information over a lifetime. With that out of the way, let’s check in and see how I did this quarter.

Q3 Performance

As of 9/1/2019, my 10K portfolio stood at $11,088.12. When I started on 8/19/18, the SPY had a price of $285.06. As of 9/1/19 the SPY closed at $292.37(it’s actually had quite a run up since.)

Return(1) SPY Return(2) Difference(1-2)

Portfolio value $11,088.12: 10.88 2.56 8.32

With dividends reinvested into the SPY their returns would look a bit more like this.

Return(1) SPY Return(2) Difference(1-2)

Portfolio value $11,088.12: 10.88 4.42 6.46

I have to say that I am more than satisfied with my results thus far. I have cut a few of my losers and held tight onto my winners. I like to let my winners ride and let compounding do the work. Some might be overvalued and others are hopefully undervalued. In the long run, stocks will follow suit with growth in intrinsic value. I feel good about the companies I’m invested in and their prospects for the future. That being said, I hold onto almost $1,700 in cash. I am finding it hard to find deals I am comfortable with in the current environment. That doesn’t mean the search is over, just means I have to turn over more stones. One will appear and I will be ready to put my remaining capital to work.

Taxes

One topic I don’t see talked about nearly enough is the effect of taxes on investment returns. So often I hear analysts talk about a stock hitting their price target, meaning it is now a sell. Too often, these recommendations fail to mention taxes. Should you have a good gain, the second you initiate that sale, your gain is now realized. You will now be responsible for the taxes. Let’s just look at a simple example. Say you bought company A at $100. You made a great pick and after 6 months, the stock has now doubled to $200. Obviously you have made a fantastic investment, the question is what do next? If you sell out entirely, you will have a gain of $100 and it will be considered a short term capital gain, as you have not held it for longer than a year. It will be taxed at your normal income tax bracket. As of now, these taxes will fall somewhere between 10% and 37%. Let’s just assume a middle tax bracket of 24%.

On the $100 gain you will have to pay $24, leaving you with $176 to work with. Additionally, depending on where you live, you will owe state and local tax. Here in Baltimore County, Maryland you owe 5.75% to the state and 2.83% to the county. This lops off another $8.58, bringing that initial $200 down to $167.42.

The variables are of course ever changing. Should the characteristics of company A fail to live up to expectations or should your investment thesis no longer hold true, it very well might be a good time to sell out and switch companies. The important lesson is to take the effects of taxes into consideration and make an apples to apples comparison. In this example it is not $200 in Company A vs $200 in Company B, but instead $200 in Company A vs $167.42 in Company B. With that in mind, selling out of Company A might not be as enticing.

As always, thank you for reading. Be sure to subscribe and follow me on Twitter @Thegarpinvestor. Feel free to share the post, thanks!

One Year Down

I have now officially been running this blog for a full year now. I’ve had my ups and my downs, but I think I’ve grown considerably as an investor. I truly think I am better than when I started and I am now even more committed to GARP investing. Putting my thoughts out in public has forced me to focus on my core beliefs and has held me accountable. I expect my growth in year 2 to be even greater than in year 1. Just like wealth, knowledge is always compounding.

Year One performance

I started this journey exactly one year ago. I put $10,000.00 of my own money into my 10K Portfolio. I put that money into companies I believed in and let them do the work for me. Thankfully, I didn’t fall flat on my face and I’ve been able to make some money. My portfolio now stands at $10,843.11. As I often state, making a positive return isn’t all that difficult. You can buy government bonds and make a virtually risk free return, it just won’t be very good. I choose to compare my portfolio to the S&P 500. If you can’t outperform the general American index in the long run, you don’t have much business in picking individual stocks. When I started on 8/19/18, the SPY stood at $285.06. As of 8/19/19 the SPY closed at $292.33.

Return(1) SPY Return(2) Difference(1-2)

Portfolio value $10,843.11: 8.43 2.55 5.88

Simply looking at the SPY ticker isn’t quite fair to the index. My portfolio value accounts for all dividends I have collected over the last year. The SPY does not automatically reinvest dividends. They currently give out a yield of 1.86%. Without knowing the exact days of distribution and all that jazz, I think it is easiest if I just add in 1.86% to the SPY return in order to give a more accurate picture. Therefore a more realistic result would be as follows:

Return(1) SPY Return(2) Difference(1-2)

Portfolio value $10,843.11: 8.43 4.41 4.02

Overall, I am pretty satisfied with my results in year one. I outperformed the SPY by a hair over 4%. Take this with a grain of salt, one year is not nearly enough time to get an accurate picture. It will likely take at least 3 years to really tell whether this out performance is for real. That being said, I certainly prefer to have this head start.

Mistakes Made

I have learned a number of lessons since starting this blog. Some were completely new to me, while other things I knew but needed to be reinforced. My first punch to the gut came shortly after beginning. I rushed into some companies, rather than waiting for an appropriate entry price. Soon after I bought into my first companies, the market took a precipitous fall. Had I just bought in a couple of months later, my returns would likely be higher by a good 10%. The biggest lesson I learned was not to fight against a large macroeconomic situation. I grossly underestimated both how much effect the trade war could impact my companies and how long such a situation could last. I thought we were looking at a blip on the radar and my companies would return to form in just a couple of months. I was wrong. This trade war has lasted far longer than I had anticipated and has greatly lowered the earning power of some of my companies. I don’t think the end is in sight and for that reason I have chosen to make some changes to my portfolio. I still believe in these companies, in the long run I would bet that all will end up fine. However, I must stick to my principles as a GARP investor and therefore I choose to invest in the path of growth, not turnaround situations.

Portfolio Changes

Within the last month, I have cut out my positions in HII, IPGP, and LEA. As I stated, all are fine companies. They simply haven’t been able to whether this trade war without suffering. Each has seen their earning power eroded greatly and the stocks have followed suit. Unfortunately, I lost money on all three of these investments. Thankfully, some of my winners have more than made up for it. In fact, my investment into FND alone has made up all losses in these three companies. With the money from selling, I bought one additional share of FB for $180.17. I now sit on a cash balance of $1,688.44. I have a number of companies on my watch list that I am following and I will be waiting for a good time to enter into two or three new positions. I’ll be sure to let you know when that happens.

As always, thank you for reading. I have appreciated your support over the last year and look forward to seeing where this journey takes me. Be sure to subscribe and follow me on Twitter @Thegarpinvestor. Feel free to share the post, thanks!

Blogging Is Hard (Q2 Update)

I hope everyone has gotten to enjoy the long holiday weekend. This time of year, we get to celebrate America and appreciate all the freedoms we are given. On the investing front, we should acknowledge how fortunate we are to invest in a country that has provided long term annual market returns of 8-10%. If you can just keep up with the market over the long run, you’ll end up pretty well off.

Just like the market though, running a blog has its ups and its downs. Sometimes you feel the jolt of inspiration, a never ending flow of thoughts simmering at the surface just waiting to be written down. At others, writing a post can seem like the greatest hassle in the world. Recently, writing for the blog has frankly been a challenge. This is my first post in three months, since my last portfolio update. What starts as a one week lapse, quickly turns into two, which inevitably carries on for many more. Just like investing, the weeks tend to compound.

It isn’t like I haven’t had any good ideas, I just haven’t been able to muster the energy to sit down and write out a full post. The year 2019 gives us a never ending supply of distractions, whether it was watching the NBA Playoffs or browsing through Reddit and Twitter, I always found something inconsequential to occupy my time. I can now say I understand how a famous author can keep fans waiting year after year without ever finishing a series(well maybe I don’t understand the whole having fans part). George RR Martin, you have my sympathy.

On the financial side of things, 2019 never ceases to surprise. After a calamitous end to 2018, 2019 started the year sprinting out of the gate. By the end of the the first quarter, I was sure the market had to give some back. Instead the market has continued its steady onward march. Luckily for me, my portfolio has been fully invested and my companies have continued to grow. I’m not however ready to be too confident. The bottom could fall out at any moment, so who knows what will happen, I’m just along for the ride.

2nd Quarter Performance 2019

Reminder my 10K Portfolio started with $10,000 on and was bench marked against the SPY at 285.06 which as of the open on 7/1/19 stood at 293.

Return(1) SPY Return(2) Difference(1-2)

Portfolio value $10,620.89: 6.93 2.78 4.14

My portfolio has continued to do well and I now outpace the SPY by over 4%. Let’s not get too ahead of ourselves, I am still shy of the 1 year anniversary of the portfolio. I’ll chalk this up to luck, but if I can still be beating the market 5 years from now, I’d like some credit! I am unlucky and perhaps a bit stupid for when I started the portfolio. Had I waited just a few months, that nearly 7% return would easily be double that amount.

More important than the stock returns however, the performance of my portfolio companies have been quite good. Let’s take a look at what’s been going on.

Best Performers

MSFT- Under Satya Nadella’s leadership, Microsoft continues to dominate. They may have taken a break from growth in the early 2010’s, but they are back and hungrier than ever. You would think that a company with a market cap over 1 trillion would have trouble growing. Right now, that couldn’t be further from the truth. This past quarter, MSFT grew operating income by 25% and diluted EPS was up 20%(both YoY). Buoyed by their cloud division, Azure, Microsoft’s dominance looks inevitable. Azure had revenue growth of 73% compared to last year. The company also now sits on a treasure chest of 131 billion dollars of cash and short term investments. Their balance sheet is rock solid and they are well positioned for years to come.

ODFL- Old Dominion Freight Line is much smaller than Microsoft, but their recent success is no less impressive. This past quarter they were able to grow EPS 23.3%, while also reducing the overall share count by 1.5%. It is almost always a good sight when you see EPS growing rapidly and the overall share count falling. You can get in trouble if the company is paying a price well above intrinsic value for those shares, but I do not believe this to be such a case. I now own a greater percentage of a company that is performing excellently. Debt levels remain almost nonexistent and I feel comfortable holding onto this company well into the future. I am down about 7% in the company even though the market has gone up and the company has performed extremely well. This is probably a pretty good indicator that ODFL is trading at an attractive price.

Worst Performers

LEA- Unfortunately, not all of my companies have been great performers. Lear Corporation has had a couple of bad quarters in a row and my holdings are now down almost 20% in the company. Sales were down 5% and adjusted EPS fell from 5.1 to 4. These are never good signs, I like to see companies going in the opposite direction. GARP investing is about finding growth, not watching sales fall. Lear is being impacted by the cyclical nature of automotive sales. We seem to have hit a peak and auto sales have fallen in recent quarters. On the bright side, the company continues to drive down the share count. On a P/E basis the company looks pretty cheap, trading around 8.5 but that isn’t necessarily a good enough reason to hold onto the company.

HII – Unlike Lear, Huntington Ingalls was able to grow revenue, up 11% YoY. It wasn’t all good however, operating income fell from 191 million to 161 million. This was primarily due to lower margins and how penchant expenses are accounted for. Either way, earnings were down considerably. The company also took on a substantial amount of debt and the balance sheet doesn’t look nearly as strong as it used to. Not all is bad though, HII did win some crucial contracts and the backlog now stands at a record 41 billion. The company remains a high moat competitor with long term contracts locked in. I just have to wonder if this is the best investment opportunity available.

For the time being I am going to hold onto these companies and monitor how they do in the next quarter or two. Should things not improve, don’t be surprised if I sell out of one or even both of these. I like the future prospects of HII more at the moment, but they still need to be paid close attention. I don’t care how much a stock moves in the short run, if the business doesn’t perform up to expectations it may be time to move on. I would rather put my money into a company with better industry tailwinds.

As always thanks for reading, I appreciate it! Be sure to subscribe to this blog and follow me on twitter @TheGarpInvestor.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a happy new year and took some time to celebrate! For us investors these past few months haven’t been too wonderful, so finding reasons to celebrate is always nice. As anyone following the market knows, we have seen a precipitous drop in prices. Everything from tech stocks to blue chips have seen a significant fall. From the market highs in October, prices now sit about 20% lower. This has given us a reminder that prices often fall much faster than they rise. Watching your portfolio drop by multiple percentage points day after day can truly leave you breathless. Volatility however is a price we must pay for satisfactory results.

This drop has certainly not left me unscathed. My personal accounts have taken a beating and my 10K portfolio now sits just around $9,000.00. I clearly chose the exact wrong time to start a portfolio. I made a rookie mistake and rushed into my investments, instead of letting ripe opportunities arise. Let it be known that I am far from a perfect investor. This is merely one mistake of the many I am sure to make. I only hope that in the aggregate, my winners will outshine my losers and overall my portfolio will beat the market in the long term.

Let me make it clear, no one likes losing money. I hate losing money as much as anyone, probably even more than most. It pains me to watch my hard earned money wash away. I could have had a lot more fun blowing $1,000.00 than losing it in stocks, but that is the risk us investors take. In the short run anything could happen. There are infinite possibilities, but we play a game of probability. In the long run, measured over many years not days or even months the market has grown and grown enormously. I therefore choose to let the numbers dictate my investing philosophy. Pick great companies and allow time and compounding to increase my wealth.

The ability to control your emotions is probably the most important attribute an investor can have. What is most important is not intelligence, nor financial modeling, but the ability to remain calm and think rationally. Never one to mince his words, Charlie Munger stated “A lot of people with high IQs are terrible investors because they’ve got terrible temperaments.” The stomach is often what makes or breaks an investor, not the brain.

Market volatility also happens to provide opportunities to buy at a discount. If you have a long investing horizon, you should actually root for the market to fall in the short term. It allows you to accumulate shares of great companies at lower prices, that in 20-30 years will be worth far more. If you are a net buyer of stocks, falling prices are your friend not your enemy. Another thing to consider is that not only can you buy stocks at cheaper prices, so too can the companies you invest in. If you invest into companies with high free cash flow, they can use that cash to buyback their own stock or even make investments into other companies at reduced prices.

I used this drop in the market to enter two more positions and effectively fully commit my entire 10K portfolio. I have $150 leftover that I’m saving to use on a rainy day. Over time I will also accumulate money in the form of dividends and I’m sure there will be some turnover in the portfolio as certain companies do not perform according to my investment thesis. Therefore, I doubt these are the final decisions I make.

APH- I purchased 9 shares of Amphenol at $82.97 for a total of $746.73. Amphenol is a neat company which sells fiber optic connectors and other such products to all kinds of industries ranging from hospitals to aerospace. They grow their earnings each and every year and they generate lots of free cash flow. They sit around a 20 P/E which is still on the rather high end, but at a level I am comfortable with given the quality of the business.

MKL- I purchased 1 share of Markel for $1,029.96. Often referred to as a baby Berkshire, I am happy to be an owner of such a high caliber business. Much like Berkshire, Markel operates primarily as a specialty insurer and then reinvests the float into all kinds of other vehicles. A company of this magnitude rarely goes on sale, but such an occasion recently occurred. One of the small subsidiaries they own got in trouble with regulators for misrepresentation of loss reserves. I believe this is a one time small issue, and not endemic of the entire company. This caused a great drop in price, that put Markel under 1.5X Price/Book value. The company almost never trades at such a level, so I pulled the trigger on a company I will be happy to own forever.

As always, thanks for reading! Questions are encouraged and feel free to comment how your portfolio has performed. Remember to follow along and join the email list on the side.

6 GARP Investors to Follow

Tis’ the season and I hope everyone is enjoying this time of year. I just finished celebrating Hanukkah and Christmas is only a couple short weeks away. With the new year just around the corner, I thought I’d put together a list of some great investors you all should have on your radar. I try and soak up as much wisdom as possible and these investors are dripping with juicy nuggets of information. This list ranges from bloggers to CEO’s of Fortune 500 companies, running the entire gamut. Knowledge can be gained from all kinds of different sources. This is far from a complete list, but just a few names you all should familiarize yourselves with.

Francois Rochon- First on our list is Canadian investor Francois Rochon. Rochon started his investment firm, Giverny Capital, over 20 years ago. Unfortunately, I had never heard of him until earlier this year. To make up for this delay, I devoured all of his annual reports in a single day. He is a classic GARP investor, focusing far more on the quality of a business than on the price of a stock on any given day. He is more concerned with how the earnings of a company are increasing each and every year. His returns are admirable, averaging 15.7% since 1993 as compared to the index result of 9.2%. Over the course of 25 years, this discrepancy has led to magnificent results. I particularly enjoy his writing style, mixing humor and humility. He includes a section every year highlighting his greatest mistakes, something that every investor can surely relate to. My own personal account seems to overlap with his constantly, with companies such as: Markel, Berkshire, Google, Visa and Union Pacific showing up in both. You can see his reports located on his company’s website
2. Pat Dorsey– I was introduced to this famed investor through Patrick O’Shaughnessy’s great podcast The Investor’s Field Guide. Dorsey gained notoriety through being the director of equity research at Morningstar, a well known investment research company. He went on to write a couple of highly regarded books The Five Rules for Successful Stock Investing and The Little Book that Builds Wealth, as well as start his own asset management firm. He focuses on companies with strong moats, otherwise known as durable competitive advantages. Due to those advantages, they are able to keep high returns on capital far longer than the average company. In his own words, his strategy can be summarized as “We purchase these businesses at what we believe to be reasonable discounts to a rational assessment of intrinsic value, and we seek to invest in companies with corporate managers who we believe can allocate capital in ways that benefit long-term minority shareholders.” Here is a great compilation of resources he has shared on his Website
Warren Buffett– I would be remiss to make a list of extraordinary investors and exclude the granddaddy of them all. While often thought to be a value investor, I think he can more appropriately be given the categorization of a GARP investor. I probably don’t need to spend much time talking up his accomplishments, you’ve heard them all before. Just know that he is as wise as they come and his lessons are timeless. You can of course read his annual reports, watch his numerous interviews or even go to Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholders meeting as I have done myself in the past.
Mark Leonard– Another famous businessperson I am embarrassed to have only found this year is Canadian superstar CEO Mark Leonard. Leonard is the CEO and founder of Constellation Software. While Warren Buffett has famously avoided technology, Leonard has embraced it. Realizing that software companies in niche industries spin off tremendous amounts of cash while only requiring minimal ongoing capital investments, Leonard has created a decentralized juggernaut. Leonard uses the vast amount of free cash to then acquire an ever growing list of niche software companies. His real brilliance was in identifying how strong a moat these companies could have. Think of a dentist or an optometrist. Once they start using a particular software for their office, it becomes incredibly difficult to switch. All of their patient records are stored on that program. In order to switch, all of that data would need to be reentered and staff needed to be retrained on a brand new software. He has taken that premise and bought up companies in hundreds, if not thousands of different industries. You can read his annual letters, going back all the way to 1996 here.
John Huber– I’ve been following this fellow blogger for a number of years at BaseHitInvesting. Not only does he run an incredibly informative blog, he also runs his own fund, Saber Capital Management. In his own words “Our general strategy is to make meaningful investments in high quality, predictable businesses that can be expected to grow intrinsic value at high rates and that are currently available at cheap prices.” I would peg that definition right up the GARP alley. I’ve learned a lot from Mr. Huber over the years, particularly his series on ROIC and compounding. He recently wrote up a new post entitled “Facebook Is Undervalued.” I’ve shared my thoughts on FB previously and the two of us seem to see eye to eye. I look forward to reading more of what he has to say over the years.
Connor Leonard– I was introduced to our final GARP investor of the day through a guest post on Huber’s blog BaseHitInvesting a couple of years ago. Leonard(No relation to Mark as far as I know) runs the public securities portfolio for Investment Management Corporation. IMC is a particularly interesting business case study. On only $50,000 of startup capital, the founders started the restaurant Golden Corral. Due to managerial brilliance and the fixation on cash flow, they have never needed to invest a penny more. With such great cash flow, they have entered into many other business arenas, as well as their public securities division, which is where Leonard fits in. He runs his portfolio in a GARP oriented style. With a focus on moats and capital light compounders he has found great success. I foresee his notoriety in the investment community growing considerably over the years.

As always thank you for reading. I hope you found this post interesting. These are all great investors you can learn a ton from. Subscribe and let me know what you think. Thanks again!

What a Roller Coaster!(3Q Update)

I’d like to start by apologizing for not posting in a while. Due to a combination of work, life, laziness and a sinking market, I’ve found it hard to muster the energy to type up a new post. That of course is not a great excuse and I’d like to get back into posting regularly. Without further ado, let’s get down to business.

Since I last posted, the market has given us all a roller coaster of emotions. Volatility has been extremely high, with markets moving 1, 2 and sometimes even 3% in a single day. October was a rather brutal month, the S&P 500 fell over 10%. The question is, what should we do about it?

While watching your stocks fall is never fun, you have to take a step back and think rationally. Are your companies executing? That is ultimately what is important. A falling price allows a company to buy back shares at a discount, increasing your overall ownership. A falling market also provides a buying opportunity for you. I took advantage of this opportunity and bought shares of three strong companies.

New Purchases

LUV- Southwest Airlines is a leading low cost travel provider. By focusing on providing value to their customers, Southwest has emerged as a dominant player in their field. They simply offer the best value in the business and over time will continue to grow.

Googl- If there is one no brainer company, it is Google. They dominate the world of digital advertising. Online search is one of the highest margin businesses around and competitors can’t seem to steal market share no matter how hard they try. I simply needed to wait for a reasonable price. Thankfully, the market was gracious enough to present me with such an opening.

MSFT- I wasn’t always a believer in Microsoft during the Steve Ballmer era, but Satya Nadella has proven to be the real deal. Microsoft Azure is the fastest growing product in the cloud infrastructure arena. Microsoft is a free cash flow machine, paying a solid dividend and rapidly buying back shares. They are pushing all the right buttons and I’m happy to be an owner.

3rd Quarter Performance

Reminder I started with $10,000 and bench marked against the SPY at 285.06 which as of the closing on 11/13/18 stands at 272.34

%Return(1) SPY Return(2) Difference(1-2)

Portfolio value- $9,275.89 (7.25%) (4.65) (2.6)

So far pretty terrible, I clearly chose an awful time to start this portfolio and even worse my companies have under performed the benchmark. That being said, 1 quarter doesn’t tell a full story. To get a better idea let’s look into how the companies (not their stock prices) have performed this past quarter.

DG- Reported a great quarter. EPS growth of 40.7% YoY and bought back a significant amount of shares.

FB- Top line growth of 33% and remains debt free. Also bought back a significant amount of stock. DAU and MAU both increased, will be an interesting story to follow given all the adversity surrounding the company.

FND- Continues strong growth, adjusted EPS up 41.2% YoY. Opened 7 new stores during the quarter with plans to open many more.

GOOGL- Google put up another amazing quarter. The company is a behemoth, now sitting on over 100 Billion dollar of cash and cash equivalents. EPS grew over 36% YoY, never ceases to amaze.

HII- EPS grew a whopping 61% from 3.27 to 5.29. This high moat company keeps chugging along.

IPGP- Faced a tough quarter due to the macroeconomic environment. EPS fell 13% YoY. They did however acquire a smaller competitor, growing market share in the robotic welding division.

LEA- Eps grew 3% YoY. Not too wonderful, but the company was able to reduce the share count considerably.

LUV- Southwest produced a steady quarter. EPS was up 22%. The share count continues to fall while paying out a decent dividend.

MSFT- Crushing earning estimates, Microsoft grew EPS by 36%. Continues to be an absolute machine.

ODFL- While last alphabetically, Old Dominion was anything but last performance wise. EPS grew a tremendous 71% YoY, a simply remarkable amount.

Overall, I think their is a lot to be encouraged about with this group of companies. They continue to compound and business continues to improve. IPGP and Lear continue to show weakness, but I remain confident in the long term viability of both companies. All others reported very strong quarters. Although the portfolio has not done well this first quarter, remaining patient will pay off eventually. Remember what Ben Graham said all those years ago, “In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine.” It is going to take time for these companies to reach their intrinsic value, but I am happy to wait.

As always, thanks for reading! Questions are encouraged and feel free to comment how your portfolio has performed this past quarter. Remember to follow along on the side.