This was a great post! I love to check what companies looked like when great investors bought them so we little guys can replicate on small or mid-caps with our little money. ROE/ROIC is the first thing I look for when researching new companies.
Buffett's genius, like Howard Marks's and Seth Klarman's, lies in minimizing the down side in an absolutely expert manner. As Marks is fond of saying, "Take care of the down side, and the up side tends to take care of itself", or "you can only really focus on offense or defense, and defense tends to be better."
All investments are more easily understood (for me, anyway) through the lens of Buffett. His shareholder letters are among the very best educational material anywhere for investors.
Great write-up. Just one 1uick question on the following statement -- isn't dividend yield already captured in the 8-10% earnings yield?
"Finally, AAPL was also paying a juicy ~2% dividend yield, further raising its total shareholder return to between 10% - 12%."
Ahh I remember. TSR adds dividend yield to capital appreciation. Thanks for the heads up :)
Hey Shawn, actually you're right! Gotta edit that. I seem to recall people adding dividends to the TSR, need to refresh my memory as to why though.
This was a great post! I love to check what companies looked like when great investors bought them so we little guys can replicate on small or mid-caps with our little money. ROE/ROIC is the first thing I look for when researching new companies.
Buffett's genius, like Howard Marks's and Seth Klarman's, lies in minimizing the down side in an absolutely expert manner. As Marks is fond of saying, "Take care of the down side, and the up side tends to take care of itself", or "you can only really focus on offense or defense, and defense tends to be better."
Well done!
Couldn't have put it better myself... and thanks!
All investments are more easily understood (for me, anyway) through the lens of Buffett. His shareholder letters are among the very best educational material anywhere for investors.