People often ask how we find our investments. We find them in a number of different ways:
- We have spent decades visiting businesses in North America that, valuation aside, meet our investment criteria. This has resulted in a long list of companies that we would like to own at the right price. We review this list weekly to ascertain if any of the companies have fallen into our “buy” zone. If they have, we begin a deep research dive.
- We read everything we can get our hands on and attend a variety of conferences.
- We share ideas with a few smart, like-minded concentrated value investors.
- We use a variety of research databases to screen for ideas based on a number of investment criteria (valuation, growth, profitability, return on capital, etc.). Of course, identifying potential investments is only the beginning of our process. We follow up with rigorous research.