Glen’s Christmas Special Part 1/2
By
Glen Bradford
I wanted to cover some companies that may not be the cheapest in the world, but still would confuse those efficient market experts out there for being relatively inexpensive based on some future projections. I also think that mentioning other ideas that are worth owning going forward probably won’t dilute my reputation of being aggressively cheap. I will tell you how I see it. It’s always fun to take a look at companies from various value perspectives. By staying on your toes, you can see the best values in less time and take better advantage of them. And so, we begin a quick Holiday series that I’ll try to make at least a little bit interesting. I want to teach the idiosyncrasies that differentiate forms of fundamental investing.
One of the first lessons my mentor Doug Hall taught me was that earnings only count if they follow from revenues. On my search for the ideal investment, I’ve encountered many companies that don’t have revenues, a handful of which have earnings that come from god knows where. After earnings comes the growth of those earnings. There are different types of growth that I find appealing.
The first type of growth most enthusiasts try their best to find using stock screeners. It’s that predictable variety that appears to persist through time and hopefully continues into the future. So, what do you do when a company projects 50% revenue growth for each of the next 3 years? If you know how to read a financial statement, you might even notice that they’re making money and they are fairly inexpensive based on those projections. Care to learn more? Check out Yongye International (Nasdaq: YONG). Off you go. Note my positive sentiment on the booming Chinese agriculture industry.
Then, you have organic growth and acquisition growth. I’ll be honest. Most companies absolutely suck at acquisitions and usually hurt themselves going forward by overpaying for their target. So, it’s fantastic when you are following a company and it’s actually making good decisions. I’ve followed this next company all the way from when it’s ticker was CHID (not CIHD, Thanks Joenatural, but the intent was to inadvertently advertise CIHD, worth looking into, the old CIHI I believe). Uplisting is a possibility and it’s on several uplisting watchlists that I’m aware of. Lithium batteries are something that excites me, especially in China. New Energy Systems (OTC: NEWN) is not only in uplisting city but is on its second acquisition in a month. That’s crazy for such a small company.
Who likes expansion growth? This is the kind where your growth appears more jerky, but huge in a good way. I think that if I were to quote the multiple expansion in capacity being undergone by China Biotics (Nasdaq: CHBT), you probably wouldn’t believe me the first time, not to mention that they are looking to do it again at the beginning of the New Year. One of the things that differentiates this from most of the companies I cover is that it is optionable.
In this brief adventure, I want to close out each article with a speculative idea. We’ll call this “potential growth.” The first is sitting on a mountain of Jade and just ran a profitable quarter earning 8 cents. Not bad for a 44 cent stock that’s selling for ½ of its book value ballpark, not to mention what the mountain of jade is worth. Jade Art Group (OTC: JADA) is certainly interesting if you note that they made money this last quarter without filling their existing contracts as far as I can tell.
The same selection process that I use to shop for stocks has spilled over into other aspects of my life, for example Christmas shopping. I recently spent 5 hours wandering through Target, Walmart, and past various stores in the mall in an attempt to buy Christmas presents with my father. Not surpringly, the only purchase decision that we made was lunch… and we even bought the dog a 50-lb bag of dogfood. Pretty much the only thing I got out of this experience is that the stores are crowded and other people are buying a lot of stuff that they don’t need. I just can’t justify buying Christmas presents when there is so much more to be had in the equity markets.
Disclosure: Bradford was long Yongye, New Energy Systems, China Biotics, and Jade Art at the time of publication.
Other companies that I would recommend looking at are $GRVY if you like net cash plays.