Chuck Akre’s letter to shareholders: Historically we have managed your portfolio on the basis of staying fully invested through market cycles. Interestingly, across the last eighty plus years of recorded U.S. stock market history, a very small number of days account for a large percentage of the returns the market generates.
What this means to us is that in order to participate at least equally with “market” movements over time, one needs to stay invested. Our strategy of remaining invested through market cycles can be traced back over eighteen years and has produced a level of achievement for our clients that is better than the market’s average
Every few years the market’s action causes lot of hand wringing or perhaps full blown anxiety for participants. Our goal with respect to your assets always has been, and remains today, to own a portfolio of a dozen or more individual businesses able to compound their shareholders’ capital at average rates. The defining characteristics of these businesses are they:
a) have more growth and higher returns on capital than average
b) more often than not have stronger balance sheets than the market
c) have lower valuation than the market
d) are managed by honest, smart and shareholder friendly managers.
Read the complete letter
What this means to us is that in order to participate at least equally with “market” movements over time, one needs to stay invested. Our strategy of remaining invested through market cycles can be traced back over eighteen years and has produced a level of achievement for our clients that is better than the market’s average
Every few years the market’s action causes lot of hand wringing or perhaps full blown anxiety for participants. Our goal with respect to your assets always has been, and remains today, to own a portfolio of a dozen or more individual businesses able to compound their shareholders’ capital at average rates. The defining characteristics of these businesses are they:
a) have more growth and higher returns on capital than average
b) more often than not have stronger balance sheets than the market
c) have lower valuation than the market
d) are managed by honest, smart and shareholder friendly managers.
Read the complete letter
