Contrarian Investment Strategies - The Next Generation: Chapter 8 - 9

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Jun 27, 2010
The founder and Chairman of Dreman Value Management (est. 1977) shares his views on how investors can beat the market with this book (written in 1998). In reference to the efficient market hypothesis (EMH), Dreman writes "Nobody beats the market, they say. Except for those of us who do." More on this book is availablehere. One of his earlier books (from 1982) has already been summarized here.


Chapter 8


Based on the evidence described in the previous chapters, Dreman recommends four strategies for the retail investor. He suggests investors go with a low P/E, low P/B, low P/CF or high-dividend yield approach. If investors rebalance their portfolios every year such that they include twenty to thirty large stocks within the lowest 40% of each category, they should beat the market handily. Should they be willing to rebalance their portfolios every quarter, Dreman expects them to do even better, based on the data he has collected.


In addition to the criteria set out above, Dreman checks the following five additional criteria before an issue makes it into his portfolio:


  • A strong financial position (current assets vs current liabilities etc.)
  • Favourable operating and financial ratios
  • A higher rate of earnings growth (historically) vs S&P 500, plus the likelihood that earnings will not plummet in the future
  • Earnings are estimated conservatively
  • An above average dividend yield
In this chapter, Dreman also introduces GARP – growth at a reasonable price. GARP investments benefit shareholders in two ways. First, as earnings grow, so does the stock price. But investors further benefit as a result of the fact that as a company shows strong earnings growth, the stock’s P/E multiple will also expand.


Finally, Dreman discusses some actual investments he has made by applying these methods. He goes into detail on how the above ratios and criteria applied to his purchases of Galen Health, Eli Lilly, Ford, Fleet Financial and KeyCorp in the 1990s.


Chapter 9


Dreman expands a bit on the low P/E strategy described in the previous chapter. His research suggests that the low P/E strategy even works (by a similar margin) within individual industries, which opens up many doors for investors who can't help but avoid unfavoured industries. As a result, Dreman argues that the investor can even participate in the most popular industries of the day, and buy the companies within that industry that trade at the lowest P/E (even if those stocks trade at premiums to the market) and still generating returns that are much stronger than that of the market!


Dreman also discusses the very difficult question of when to sell an investment. There are as many answers to this question as there are investors, Dreman argues. Furthermore, few stick to their sell targets, thanks to psychological forces. For instance, if a stock rises up through the target sell price set by the investor, he will tend to find reasons to bump up his valuation.


Dreman provides a rule for investors to follow that he highly recommends investors stick to. He advises that investors sell once the stock's valuation level has reached that of the market. For example, if the investor is following a low P/E strategy, he should simply sell when the stock is at the same P/E level of the market, and use the funds to buy a new contrarian stock.


Another difficult question to answer is when to give up on a stock that doesn't see any improvement in its valuation. Dreman advises that investors give a stock 2.5 to 3 years, or more if it's a cyclical stock (as it may take more time to recover from an economic slowdown). Other investors use different time periods, however, so the investor may need to reach his own decision on how comfortable he is with his "loser" investments. For example, value investor John Templeton will give his investments six years to come around (assuming no change in fundamentals).


Saj Karsan

http://www.barelkarsan.com


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