Some readers have reached out and asked why I am currently posting so many new blog entries (spoiler alert: there is more in the pipeline). The answer is simple.
Since I started this blog roughly six years ago, the goal was always to look for cheap, out-of-favour companies trading at low valuations. Benjamin Graham famously said that the market is a voting machine in the short run but a weighing machine in the long run. Following that logic, there are times when attractively priced shares are plentiful – and other times when they are much harder to find.
As a consequence of geopolitical disruptions, an ever-changing tariff situation, and heightened uncertainty, some well-run and solid businesses – especially industrial companies – have been on sale. Adding to this, capital has been flowing heavily into US tech and growth stocks for years, leaving many solid European industrials trading at historically wide valuation discounts to their American peers. The recent turmoil has only widened that gap.
These moments never feel like good buying opportunities – that's precisely the point. If it felt comfortable, the stocks wouldn't be cheap. For patient investors willing to look past the noise, this may be an opportune time to take advantage of the short-term dislocation Graham was referring to.
I am not calling a bottom – nobody can – but at these valuations, time tends to be on the patient investor's side. Many of the companies I will be writing about have been on my watchlist for a while; the sell-off simply brought them into my target price range.
None of this means the storm is over – it may well get worse before it gets better. But the best time to go shopping is usually when nobody else wants to. The coming posts will focus on a handful of businesses that I believe the market is mispricing today, and I'll lay out the case for each one as clearly as I can.
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