Random thoughts about stocks, investing, business and philosophy in everyday life
The company: Based in Stockholm, Sweden, and listed on the Stockholm Exchange with the ticker SWMA, Swedish Match is a company that makes snuff, snus, chewing tobacco, cigars, matches and lighters. It was originally a matchstick company (merged with tobacco producer in 1992 under the Procordia Group), thus the name, but has over the years evolved into a tobacco company,
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Costco (COST) is a US retailer, and a pretty unique company because of these reasons: A simple business model where members pay a membership fee upfront. Items sold have only a tiny profit margin. Thus, the main income is from the membership fee. Costco receives a “float” when the members pay in advance. This is like a perpetual interest free
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Introduction and summary: This is what makes Kone, a Finnish elevator company, a potentially good investment: The industry is close to an oligopoly – just four major global players: Otis, Schindler, Kone and ThyssenKrupp (in this rank based on sales). (About 15 years ago all companies were fined for price cooperation.) I believe the four players are unlikely to underbid
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Some months ago I wrote an article about the historical performance of so-called “sin-stocks”. Tobacco companies have performed the best in the US, and alcohol stocks in the UK. In this article I briefly argue for the reasons why and why they most likely continue to outperform. High margins and cashflows: Margins are very high. For example, 27% of the
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Gjensidige, for non-native speakers an unpronounceable name, is a quality Norwegian insurer. I’ve been long since the IPO in 2010, and below I briefly bring forward some arguments why I still own the stock (and why intend keeping it). Historical performance – boring is good: Gjensidige has delivered significant alpha since the IPO in late 2010: CAGR of 18%. What
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Altria is a legendary tobacco company which was split in two in 2008 when Philip Morris became the international part of the cigarette business while Altria distributes cigarettes only in the US. In 2019 the companies tried to merge (again) but it was postponed. Tobacco stocks have been the best performers over the last 100 years. I have previously written
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This article contains some brief notes on Admiral Plc, an UK insurance company listed on London Stock Exchange with the tickercode ADM. It’s included in FTSE-100. The business: Admiral was formed in 1990 with Henry Engelhardt as the main founder. It was listed/floated in 2004 with a valuation of 700 million GBP. Today’s market cap is 6.9 billion GBP. Engelhardt
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We buy back stock when we think it’s attractively priced relative to our assessment of the intrinsic value of the enterprise. – Robert Berkley on the 1Q2020 conference call. The business: WR Berkley (NYSE: WRB) is an insurance and reinsurance company. They do mostly business like excess and surplus lines and specialty insurance. These lines of insurance are less standardized
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Essity is a Swedish consumer staple listed on Stockholm Stock Exchange with the ticker Essity. It has dual share-listing where the A-shares carries more voting rights than the B-shares. Essity has only been listed a few years after it was spun off from SCA into a separate entity. SCA continues to operate as a forest products company – SCA is
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Introduction and summary: Entra (Eiendom) (tickercode is Entra) is a Norwegian real estate company – owner and manager – listed on Oslo Stock Exchange. It was recently included in the OBX-index, the main index that tracks the 25 most liquid companies. The market cap is 22 billion NOK, pretty modest by international standards. Entra will not set the world on
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Introduction and summary: I have been a shareholder in Accenture for many years and the only regret I have is that I don’t have a bigger position. Accenture is a stock I intend to own and add on meaningful pullbacks. Accenture is a mature company, but there is a lot to like about the business model: easy to understand, tailwind
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Introduction and summary: I have been a shareholder in Accenture (ACN) for a long time and this has turned out to be one of my best investments. It’s a pretty uncomplicated business model, at least up until now, where the main assets are the employees and the culture. We can roughly say the business model is to hire people, rent
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Perhaps surprisingly, I believe Lukoil, the Russian oil giant, is the best oil stock to own among the oil majors. Despite being a Russian company, it’s managed well due to the CEO being the biggest shareholder in the company. Management has skin in the game. I bought shares in the fall of 2015 at 34 USD, which has produced a
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Investors Title (listed on Nasdaq with the tickercode ITIC) was for me an unknown company until about a week ago when I came across this article on Seeking Alpha written by Capital Ideas. The article is an interesting deep-dive into a highly profitable and well-managed small-cap (market cap is only 260 million). My article is mostly a recap of Capital
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Philip Morris International (from now on PMI) is probably one of the most “hated” companies on the planet. This black sheep is literally black-listed by all institutions bar a few brave vice funds, which means PMI and other tobacco stocks have a huge base of retail shareholders, just like myself. PMI is a sin stock, a topic I wrote about
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I believe Investor AB is well know by most investors, even non-Swedish investors. It has an outstanding track-record of growing net asset value (NAV) for over a century. In this analysis I bring forward some arguments for why I’m long the stock, and why I believe it will continue to outperform. I believe the simplest investment ideas are the best,
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Svenska Handelsbanken (called Handelsbanken in the rest of the article ) was founded in 1871 and is the oldest listed company on Stockholm Stock Exchange. The Bank has a nationwide branch network in Sweden, the UK, Norway, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands. I have been long this stock for some years, and I believe this is the best managed bank
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Berkshire Hathaway needs no introduction, but what many investors might not know is the existence of several “Mini-Berkshires” or “Baby-Berkshires”, companies that are much smaller but in many ways similar both in business model and mindset of the management. One of these companies is Markel Corporation which is traded on the NYSE and has the tickercode “MKL”. Previously I have
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Berkshire Hathaway needs no introduction, but what many investors might not know is the existence of several “Mini-Berkshires” or “Baby-Berkshires”, companies that are much smaller but in many ways similar both in business model and mindset of the management. One of these companies is Alleghany Corporation which is traded on the NYSE and has the single tickercode “Y”. In this
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Diageo is a sin stock and those stocks have performed the best over the last century. This analysis argues for why this is likely to continue. Background and summary: Diageo produces alcohol – lots of it – hence a “sin-stock”. Tobacco and alcohol stocks have produced spectacular gains over the last century, and Diageo is not different: 12% CAGR since
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Introduction and summary: This article is a very brief analysis of Unilever. The company has proven to be adaptable in many different economic climates, and has been around for about 90 years, but its roots can be traced back to the 1880s. The current company is a result of the merger of Dutch Margarine Unie and the UK soapmaker Lever
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I have been a shareholder in Abbott Laboratories (ABT) since the acquisition of St. Jude in 2016. I believe this is a very good stock to own for the long run, not because of the dividend, but because of the potential long-term returns. Furthermore, Abbott’s products are needed both in good and bad times. Below you find some very
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Governments have currently implemented draconian measures to stop the coronavirus, leading to a wide global sell-off on the stock exchanges. Market drops are often a good thing if you have cash or if the companies have liquidity to buy back shares and wither the storm. The FED is printing almost insane amounts of money every day and EU states are
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Last week I wrote an article about how you can create your own “dividend” by selling shares. Many investors have an irrational dividend bias: Benjamin Graham wrote in the Intelligent Investor that a rising dividend has the potential of attracting “ignorant coupon clippers” – not business owners. I believe too many shareholders in ExxonMobil (XOM) are in the “coupon clipper”
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This article contains some brief notes on Chr. Hansen Holding AS, the famous Danish enzymes, food/nutrition and natural colors company. The article is just a short presentation of the company and writing is kept to a minimum and mostly in the forms of bullet points. The business and some history: Chr. Hansen is a Danish company that supposedly touches about
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