Investment Guru Mason Hawkins published 2Q10 letter. As stated in the letter, the three Longleaf Funds’ NAVs retreated in the second quarter and pushed year-to-date results into negative territory. Each Fund has outperformed its respective benchmark in 2010 but is behind our absolute annual goal of inflation plus 10%.
Hawkins provided the following bullish assessment on equity over bond:
Read the complete letter here
Hawkins provided the following bullish assessment on equity over bond:
Equities offer a superior opportunity for investors today, particularly compared to fixed income. The earnings yield of the S&P 500 based on 2011 projected EPS is 9.4%. If adjusted for the approximately $100 of cash imbedded in the S&P, the operating earnings yield increases to 10.4%. The numbers are slightly more attractive overseas. Based on 2011 estimates, the EAFE Index earnings yield is 9.8%. If earnings grow organically from today’s depressed levels at only 5% per year (a rate that does not require the reinvestment of earnings because of current excess capacity), and even if the P/E ratio remains below the long-term average, an investor’s five year average annual return will be in the mid-teens.
By contrast, corporate bonds with fixed, taxable coupons yield much less than the growing, after-tax coupon that companies produce. The following table compares corporate earnings yields to bond yields at bear market lows since 1932. When stocks have been at their lowest levels, earnings yields have been an average of 2.8% higher than Aa2 bond yields. At the beginning of July earnings yields are 4.3% above debt yields or almost twice stocks’ relative attractiveness to bonds at bear market lows. We have rarely witnessed this much disparity in the benefits of being an owner of a growing coupon versus being a lender to a fixed one.
Read the complete letter here
