The real losers from lower rates Ironically, buying shares is one way of benefiting from lower interest rates.

For almost two years now investors have been taking out more mortgages than first home buyers.

When the Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates last week, we saw the traditional fanfare over winners and losers from the decision.

For the couple paying off a mortgage on a house they bought ten or twenty years ago, it was all upside. A lower rate reduces those interest payments and puts upward pressure on house prices, making them richer on paper and - due to lower interest payments - quite immediately boosts their spending money (or means they can pay off that loan more quickly).

On the other hand, retirees living in their own home off the income from term deposits, are seen as the victims. Lifelong savers, these people have too much cash to deserve the pension, but can't afford to live off the interest. Worryingly, they are eating into their principle. They are the first to receive our sympathy.

That's fair enough, but we hear a less about the impact on young adults. Still studying, or at the beginning of their careers, they are saving for a house deposit, often with a partner or spouse. The only problem is, their savings don't earn more than 3% in the bank, and - even putting aside a generous portion of their moderate pay package - house prices seem to outstrip even their best efforts at saving. 

House prices across the 5 largest capital cities are up 8% in the last year. Sydney has seen faster growth, with prices up 14.2% in the last 12 months, according to data from CoreLogic. There's little doubt this growth has been assisted by successive interest rate cuts. As a result, many young couples working in east coast cities, hoping to build their own nest, face little prospect of success in that regard. At least, not without some help from Mum and Dad.

Unfortunately, this leads to inequitable outcomes. Since support from Mum and Dad is now important in getting into to property, young couples who don't get that help are faced with significant hurdles to home ownership. This is particularly true in Sydney or Melbourne.

Adding insult to injury, some say that lower interest rates are to their advantage. After all, they are told, now they can afford to borrow more money. While true, this fact is hardly good news. It isn't just first home buyers who can afford to borrow more. It's everyone, including investors. And those same investors also benefit from the tax break afforded by negative gearing. 

Indeed, for almost two years now investors have been taking out more mortgages than first home buyers. For the entirety of 2015, first home buyers have accounted for less than a third of new Australian mortgages, according to data from the Australian Finance Group. That's a strong indication that investors are crowding first home buyers out of the market. 

Are there better options?

With record low interest rates offering a paltry return on savings, it is increasingly attractive for would-be first home buyers to postpone that ambition and invest in shares instead. With shares in high quality companies yielding considerably more than term deposits, the benefits of compounding are not out of their reach.

In fact, sharemarket investing is one area where a younger generation may have an advantage because statistics demonstrate that the length of time owning shares is one of the most reliable indicators of overall returns. With relative youth comes a relatively long time horizon during which a high quality business with honest and competent managers can generate value for its shareholders.

Foolish takeaway

Ironically, buying shares is one way of benefiting from lower interest rates. By investing in a sensibly diversified portfolio of shares, a young couple can position themselves to benefit from lower interest rates without taking out a 30 year loan. While it's no replacement for owning their own home (which is, after all, where the heart is) it may well be the most prudent decision. After all, a recent study from New York University found Sydney housing to be the third-least affordable in the world, with Melbourne not far behind at sixth.

http://www.smh.com.au/business/motley-fool/motley-fool-the-real-losers-from-lower-rates-20150511-ggyqca.html

What Happened To Warren Buffett’s Top 10 Holdings Of 2006?

Summary:

Of Warren Buffett’s Top 10 holdings at the end of 2006, he currently still holds 6 (KO, AXP, WFC, MCO, JNJ, & Wesco Financial). He did not reduce his position in just 4 of the Top 10 (KO, AXP, WFC, and Wesco Financial).

Warren Buffett is a long-term investor, but only in a select few businesses. Otherwise, he tends to buy and sell like everyone else. It is interesting to note that many of his transactions are swaps and do not trigger tax payments. Examples include his Gillette for Procter & Gamble swap, the Procter & Gamble for Duracell swap, and the Graham Holdings Company for a major TV station swap.

A few notable mistakes also stand out. Selling a sizable chunk of Moody’s at the end of 2010 was not a good move. The partial sale of Anheuser-Busch just before a new buyout offer was puzzling as well. I expected Warren Buffett to have more ‘insider knowledge’ – especially in the Anheuser Busch deal – than he has demonstrated over the last decade. Warren Buffett is known to buy excellent stocks. His sell timing does not appear to be nearly as remarkable as his buy timing.

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Full article:


Warren Buffett has a reputation as a buy and hold investor. One of his most well known quotes is:“My Favorite Holding Period is Forever”

In practice, Warren Buffett does not always hold forever. This article shows what happened to the top 10 stock positions in Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRK-A, BRK-B) portfolio at the end of 2006. Warren Buffett has held fewer stocks than you may think for the long run. Berkshire Hathaway’s top 10 stocks in the 4th quarter of 2006 were:

1. Coca-Cola (KO)
2. American Express (AXP)
3. Wells Fargo (WFC)
4. Procter & Gamble (PG)
5. Moody’s (MCO)
6. Wesco Financial
7. Anheuser-Busch (BUD)
8. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
9. ConocoPhillips (COP)
10. Graham Holdings Company (GHC)

10. Graham Holding Company

Graham Holdings Company is better known by its previous name, The Washington Post. The company changed its name in 2013 when Jeff Bezos purchased The Washington Post paper for $250 million. The Graham Holdings Company owns Slate, education publisher Kaplan, several large market television stations, and internet service provider Cable One.

Warren Buffett has a long history with the Washington Post. He started purchasing shares in 1973. Warren Buffett held the stock over 40 years before finally exiting in 2014, after the paper was purchased by Jeff Bezos of Amazon (AMZN). Warren Buffett did not outright sell his shares, but instead exchanged them for WPLG, Miami’s ABC affiliated television station. In addition, Berkshire Hathaway received shares of itself that were owned by Graham Holdings Company, as well as cash.

9.  ConocoPhillips

Warren Buffett recently sold Berkshire Hathaway’s ConocoPhillips stock completely. By the end of 2006, ConocoPhillips was Berkshire Hathaway’s 9th largest holding. Buffett continued to add shares as oil prices soared in 2007 and 2008. Warren Buffett purchased ConocoPhillips during the idea of ‘peak oil’.

Now, Warren Buffett has completely exited his position in ConocoPhillips (as well as his position in ExxonMobil, XOM) just as oil prices have fallen precipitously. Warren Buffett is obviously a fantastic investor; perhaps the greatest of all time. He is still fallible, however. Buying oil stocks during high oil prices, and selling during low oil price is not sound investing. I believe Warren Buffett’s poor timing in his ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil trades could go down as one of the worst in his investment career. Only time will tell. In total, Warren Buffett held ConocoPhillips under 10 years.

8.  Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson first appeared as one of Berkshire Hathaway’s top holdings in 2006. Warren Buffett has slowly sold off stock in Johnson & Johnson. He sold off shares during the Great Recession in 2008 and 2009 to fund other purchases.   He purchased shares in 2010, then has continued selling in 2012, 2013, and 2014. It is interesting to see Warren Buffett add to and reduce his stake in Johnson & Johnson.

Johnson & Johnson stock was relatively flat from 2006 until 2012. From 2012 to now, the stock price has grown from $65 per share to $100 per share. Warren Buffett appears to be reducing his stake in the company as the share price rises.

7.  Anheuser-Busch

Warren Buffett was squeezed out of his Anheuser-Busch position in 2008 as the company was acquired by InBev. Interestingly, Warren Buffett sold prematurely. He exited about half of his position on rumors of a takeover. The rumored acquisition price was $65 per share. Warren Buffett sold over half of his holdings between $61 and $62 a share. Shortly after, InBev acquired Anheuser-Bush for $70 a share.

6.  Wesco Financial

In 2011, Berkshire Hathaway acquired 100% of Wesco Financial. The company had owned about 80% of Wesco for over 30 years before completing the final purchase of the company. Wesco Financial is an example of a ‘forever’ Warren Buffett stock.

5.  Moody’s

Berkshire Hathaway first acquired Moody’s in 2001. Berkshire Hathaway built up a 20% stake in the company. Moody’s operates in the oligopolistic ratings market, along with Standard & Poor’s rating service and Fitch rating services.

Warren Buffett reduced his holdings from 20% of the company down to 12% in 2010. The timing could not have been worse. From the end of 2010 to now, Moody’s stock has more than tripled. In addition, the company has paid dividends through that time as well. Warren Buffett continued to trim his Moody’s position in 2013.

4.  Procter & Gamble

Warren Buffett did not directly buy shares in Procter & Gamble. He purchased shares of Gillette in 1989. In 2005, Gillette was acquired by Procter & Gamble. In the process, Warren Buffett acquired about 100 million shares of Procter & Gamble. He reduced his holdings by about 50% in 2009 in Procter & Gamble to free up cash for other investments.

At the end of 2014, Warren Buffett decided to exchange his shares of Procter & Gamble for the company’s Duracell division. In the move, Procter & Gamble ‘recapitalized’ Duracell with over $1 billion in cash.

The Top 3:
Wells Fargo, American Express, & Coca-Cola

Warren Buffett first purchased American Express in 1964. He has now held the stock for over 50 years. If that is not a long-term investment, I don’t know what is.

Warren Buffett first invested in Coca-Cola in 1988. He has continued to hold and invest in the soda company over the last 26 years.

Wells Fargo shares were first purchased by Warren Buffett in 1989. Since then, he has continued to load up on the bank as it has expanded across the U.S.

These 3 investments currently make up Berkshire Hathaway’s core holdings. Together, American Express, Wells Fargo, and Coca-Cola account for over 50% of his portfolio. His other large holding is IBM (11%+ of total portfolio), which was purchased more recently, during the Great Recession.

Final Thoughts

Of Warren Buffett’s Top 10 holdings at the end of 2006, he currently still holds 6 (KO, AXP, WFC, MCO, JNJ, & Wesco Financial). He did not reduce his position in just 4 of the Top 10 (KO, AXP, WFC, and Wesco Financial).

Warren Buffett is a long-term investor, but only in a select few businesses. Otherwise, he tends to buy and sell like everyone else. It is interesting to note that many of his transactions are swaps and do not trigger tax payments. Examples include his Gillette for Procter & Gamble swap, the Procter & Gamble for Duracell swap, and the Graham Holdings Company for a major TV station swap.

A few notable mistakes also stand out. Selling a sizable chunk of Moody’s at the end of 2010 was not a good move. The partial sale of Anheuser-Busch just before a new buyout offer was puzzling as well. I expected Warren Buffett to have more ‘insider knowledge’ – especially in the Anheuser Busch deal – than he has demonstrated over the last decade. Warren Buffett is known to buy excellent stocks. His sell timing does not appear to be nearly as remarkable as his buy timing.

By Ben Reynolds of Sure Dividend

  Saturday, February 21, 2015 

http://www.talkmarkets.com/content/stocks--equities/what-happened-to-warren-buffetts-top-10-holdings-of-2006?post=59343

Market Sentiment Explained

DEFINITION of 'Market Sentiment'

The overall attitude of investors toward a particular security or larger financial market. Market sentiment is the feeling or tone of a market, or its crowd psychology, as revealed through the activity and price movement of the securities traded in that market. For example, rising prices would indicate a bullish market sentiment, while falling prices would indicate a bearish market sentiment. Market sentiment is also called "investor sentiment" and is not always based on fundamentals.

INVESTOPEDIA EXPLAINS 'Market Sentiment'

Market sentiment is important to day traders and technical analysts, who use technical indicators to attempt to measure and profit from the short-term price changes often caused by investors' attitudes toward a security. Market sentiment is also important to contrarian investors, who like to trade in the opposite direction of the prevailing sentiment. For example, if everyone is buying, a contrarian would sell.

Read more: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marketsentiment.asp#ixzz3Ztxa2YLw 
Follow us: @Investopedia on Twitter

Market Sentiment

Market sentiment is the general prevailing attitude of investors as to anticipated price development in a market.  This attitude is the accumulation of a variety of fundamental and technical factors, including price history, economic reports, seasonal factors, and national and world events.

For example, if investors expect upward price movement in the stock market, the sentiment is said to be bullish. On the contrary, if the market sentiment is bearish, most investors expect downward price movement. Market sentiment is usually considered as a contrarian indicator: what most people expect is a good thing to bet against. Market sentiment is used because it is believed to be a good predictor of market moves, especially when it is more extreme.  Very bearish sentiment is usually followed by the market going up more than normal, and vice versa.

Mutual fund flows are very useful.

Market sentiment is monitored with a variety of technical and statistical methods such as the number of advancing versus declining stocks and new highs versus new lows comparisons. A large share of overall movement of an individual stock has been attributed to market sentiment. The stock market's demonstration of the situation is often described as all boats float or sink with the tide, in the popular Wall Street phrase "the trend is your friend".

In the last decade, investors are also known to measure market sentiment through the use of news analytics, which include sentiment analysis on textual stories about companies and sectors. Market sentiment, as such, might be acquired from more than one sentiment analytical tool. For example, there could be just simple extraction of movement on stock exchange and validly called market sentiment. Another tool is to extract the news and media information based on their polarity. Yet another sub-subject might be community sentiment about the market movements (blogs, forums).

The Acertus Market Sentiment Indicator (AMSI) is one indicator of market sentiment. AMSI incorporates five variables. In descending order of weight in the indicator they are 

-  Price/Earnings Ratio, a measure of stock market valuations; 

-  price momentum, a measure of market psychology; 

-  Realized Volatility, a measure of recent historical risk; 

-  High Yield Bond Returns, a measure of credit risk; and 

-  the TED Spread, a measure of systemic financial risk. 

Each of these factors provides a measure of market sentiment through a unique lens, and together they may offer a more robust indicator of market sentiment.

Additional indicators exist to measure the sentiment specifically of retail Forex market investors. Though the Forex market is decentralized (not traded on a central exchange),  various retail Forex brokerage firms publish positioning ratios (similar to the Put/Call ratio) and other data regarding their own clients' trading behavior.  Since most retail currency traders are unsuccessful,  measures of Forex market sentiment are typically used as contrarian indicators.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_sentiment

How to analyze real estate developers***

Real estate stocks make up a significant number of companies in Asian stock exchanges and many of them are among the the most volatile stocks. Whether the real estate developer is listed or not, they are influenced by a host of cyclical factors ranging from government policies, interest rates, unemployment rates, affordability, etc. Hence, it is important to understand how real estate companies can be analyzed.

Profit Model

Real estate industry can be separated into the following sub-industries or types of real estate developers:

• Residential real estate developers
• Commercial and mixed use real estate developers
• Industrial real estate developers

Profit model of residential real estate developers

Residential real estate developers are more dependent on economies of scale than ever because of increasing land prices and declining rate of increase in residential property prices. In many developing countries, developers used to be able to acquire land at cheap prices and hope for rapid increase in home prices to make huge profits. In developed countries, land prices are higher, and price increases are more muted. Hence, brands and good management are playing an increasingly important role.

Profit model of commercial real estate developers

As prime real estate for commercial developments become more scare, commercial real estate developers tend to prefer to have rental incomes rather than selling units so that they can have consistent income and manage the properties. These developers are also more likely to sell their commercial properties to real estate investment trusts to free up capital and many are REITs that also develop properties.

Profit model of industrial real estate developers

Industrial real estate developers operate more like commercial real estate developers as they seek to have stable rental incomes and also sometimes selling their properties. Some industrial estate developers might even have a fund to invest in promising industrial companies so as to achieve higher profits.

Factors that Affect Value

• Land bank - the value of a real estate developer is directly influenced by its land bank. As the larger the land bank, usually means the developer can make more profits from developing the land banks later. Hence, the land bank that a real estate company has is always disclosed in detail in the listed companies' reports.
• Inventories - Real estate inventories an be separated into a few categories. Usually increasing values of construction-in-progress and land held for development will translate to higher future earningswill translate to higher future earnings for the company:
  • Completed developments - properties whose construction has been completed
  • Construction-in-progress - means the value of properties under construction.
  • Land held for development - value of land help for future developments.
  • Investment properties - properties held for rent or sale
• Customers deposits - for residential projects, it is often that developers will collect customers deposits or even prepayments of entire houses prior to completion of the units. As these properties are pre-sold and their profit and loss have yet to be recognized in the income statement, growing customer deposits could signal increasing revenue and most likely profits in the coming years ahead.
• Housing prices - the profits from real estate developers that primarily sell their developments come from selling the units at above costs. Hence, the moving of housing prices have direct impact on the profitability of residential real estate developers. Usually the stock price of real estate developers have high correlation with the anticipated housing price direction.
• Rental rates - Rental rates are especially important for commercial and industrial real estate developers as most of them do not sell all the units that they developed but they keep these units for rental returns. Rental rates have direct bearing on stock prices of such developers and REITs.
• Industry consolidation -  as economic difficulties mount and economies of scale becomes more important, mergers and acquisition activities will also drive prices of real estate companies as the merged entities might be more efficient given a larger land bank.
• Macro economic factors - government policies play a huge role in controlling property prices as the following factors will determine the direction of property prices. We have listed

Factor	Movement	Likely Effects
Interest rates	Up	Negative
Land supply	Down	Positive on short term price but will affect future profitability if land bank dries up
Loan Quantum	Up	Positive
Reserve ratio	Up	Negative
GDP	Up	Positive
Unemployment	Up	Negative

 

Valuing Real Estate Developers

A common method to value real estate developers is using the Revalued Net Asset Value ("RNAV") approach which basically determines the net asset value of a real estate developer by adding up the change in value of the investment properties held by the company, the surplus value of properties held for development using Discounted Cash Flow method and the net asset value of the company with any other adjustments that are deemed necessary.

Usually a discount or premium percentage is multiplied with the RNAV base on the developers other qualities such as management capabiltiies, branding, track record, etc. A smaller developer with poor record of continuously generating consistent income is usually given a significant discount to its RNAV.

Using the RNAV approach only takes into account of what the developer can earn with the assets that it has in its books at the time of the valuation. If properly applied, it is usually more conservative than the market approach such as P/E multiples.

However, to use this method, it requires a lot of work in revaluing the properties held by the developer, making it difficult to implement by most people as information needed to determine RNAV needs some skill in obtaining.

The price earnings ratio method could also be useful to cross check the RNAV method.

Source: http://roccapitalholdings.com/content/how-analyze-real-estate-developers

http://secret-gems.blogspot.com/2013/04/how-to-analyze-real-estate-developers.html

Future of the Ringgit

The exchange rate of the currency in which a portfolio holds the bulk of its investments determines that portfolio’s real return. A declining exchange rate obviously decreases the purchasing power of income and capital gains derived from any returns. Moreover, the exchange rate influences other income factors such as interest rates, inflation and even capital gains from domestic securities. While exchange rates are determined by numerous complex factors that often leave even the most experienced economists flummoxed, investors should still have some understanding of how currency values and exchange rates play an important role in the rate of return on their investments.

“There are positive factors that still support the ringgit: decent economic growth expected for 2015, low Government external debt and a credible monetary authority that has led to relatively low inflation over the years,’’ said Zahidi.

From a yield perspective in 2015, the US dollar will continue to sustain its appeal as the Federal Reserve is preparing to normalise the prolonged ultra low interest rates, albeit in baby steps in the months ahead.

“While the ringgit is expected to stabilise once negative sentiment towards it fades, investors will be focusing on Malaysia’s medium-term growth prospects and also assess whether the ringgit will continue to provide attractive returns from both a yield and appreciation standpoint in the face of higher US interest rates, going forward.

In another report, CIMB Investment Bank did a study in March 2004 when the ringgit was still pegged to the US dollar and at that time, found the ringgit to be undervalued by around five per cent.

‘’Since then, Malaysia’s fundamentals have strengthened further. As such, I would think that the ringgit deserves a much higher value from current levels,’’ said CIMB Investment Bank director/regional economist Julia Goh.

Negative perception and sentiment can really damage the value of a currency, which would cause concern among businesses and investors.

While those businesses that receive their payment in US dollars may celebrate, the net effect may not be that great as there could be high import costs of components and raw materials.

The current depreciation of the ringgit should remain for a year. However due to low debt to GDP ratios and high saving rates the immediate effects are on exports and inflation.

For a country with a depreciated currency, exports will increase in relation to imports as exports become cheaper and imports become more expensive.

Fortunately Malaysia’s trade surplus is RM2.86 billion and it is going to increase due to currency depreciation. The depreciation of the ringgit might increase the inflation rate and raise the cost of living somewhat, but the good news is that Malaysia has been maintaining a ‘safe-side inflation level’ of below two per cent for quite some time.

The exchange rate, whether appreciating or depreciating, was not the issue but volatility of the currency which rendered conduct of business extremely difficult and affected the capital market and the banking sector when it came to mortgages and shares.

Read more: http://www.theborneopost.com/2015/04/11/impact-of-the-depreciating-ringgit/#ixzz3YDDZ7qX2

Why Shanghai and Hong Kong are the world's cheapest sharemarket 'bubbles'

A 25 per cent surge in Hong Kong-listed shares has investors worried the market is running too hot. Photo: Bloomberg

When the price of any market doubles in the space of 12 months (like the Shanghai Stock Exchange's benchmark index), or jumps by almost a quarter in a matter of weeks (like its Hong Kong equivalent), the temptation is to write them off in one word: "bubble".

But can a sharemarket trading on a price-to-earnings ratio of 10 be considered to be in a bubble? That's the Hong Kong-listed stocks in both the Hang Seng Index and the Hong Kong China Enterprises index.

If the answer is "yes", then Mammon help local investors who are ploughing money into the Australian sharemarket, which trades on a nose-bleeding forward P/E of 16.

Ah yes, you say, but look at the mainland Chinese sharemarkets. That's where the full weight of irrational exuberance is on display. The Shanghai Composite Index now trades at 18 times estimated earnings for this calendar year, on Bloomberg data. Once again, the move has been dramatic, but the resulting valuation less so. The Shanghai index is about the same as the S&P 500 index, but well below the multiple of 28 investors are paying for the US Russell 2000 index.

"On an absolute basis, the valuations of these markets are not expensive, nor are they if you benchmark their P/Es against the US, Japan, Australia, or even Europe," Joseph Lai, who manages Platinum Investment Management's Asia Fund, says.

HSBC's head of Asia ex-Japan equity strategy Herald van der Linde doesn't see a bubble in Chinese shares, also pointing to valuations that have expanded fast but from very low levels. He remains "overweight" China, although he does add that some air might come out of the stocks that have run particularly hard.

"We like the financials sectors, banks and property companies, on the back of the lower interest rates we see in China," van der Linde says. "We also see infrastructure projects, such as those happening on the old silk road, benefiting infrastructure companies in China."

New money 

What has been particularly exercising pundits is the fact that the surges on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges, and more recently in Hong Kong, are the result of a wave of new money from individual Chinese investors who look to be punting on a government-sanctioned boom in share prices, and often doing so on borrowed money.

"In our summer last year we started seeing in the Chinese media almost educational pieces encouraging mainland investors to get back into the sharemarket," Catherine Yeung, a Hong-Kong based investment director at Fidelity Worldwide Investment, says.

But this also needs to be put in context. After years of losing money, "mum and dad" investors in China had largely abandoned the sharemarket, often in favour of the property market. Exchanges in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Hong Kong essentially stagnated from late 2011 to 2014, as the chart shows.

Then in November the Chinese government announced reforms that made it easier for foreigners to invest in the Shanghai exchange and for mainlanders to buy Hong Kong-listed mainland businesses.

About the same time, policymakers began stepping up measures designed to stimulate a flagging economy. Chinese mums and dads began starting to take notice of the sharemarket, which was showing signs of life for the first time in years. They began to pile in.

The crescendo looks to have been reached in March, when retail Chinese investors opened about 4.2 million brokerage accounts, triple the number in February and taking the total number of new accounts this year to about 8 million. That's more than were opened in 2012 and 2013 combined, Fidelity's Yeung says.

A change of rules around Easter that gave Chinese mainland fund managers more access to Hong Kong-listed shares sparked a buying frenzy, as southbound money poured into the island's sharemarket and local investors jumped in to front-run the flow of money.

Daily turnover

The average daily turnover on the Hong Kong stock exchange tripled in short order, from an average of $HK87 billion ($14.47 billion) to $HK231 billion between April 8 and April 21.

More recently, regulators announced measures to rein in margin lending, which has been taken up enthusiastically by mainland investors.

"The ultimate aim of the government is to create a slow bull market rally," Yeung says. "It's very hard to change the behaviour of an investor who is set to go two ways – either a strong rally or sharp correction. That is the conundrum."

Lai says there has been some particular exuberance among Chinese small caps, but the larger names remain good value.

He points to a name like SAIC Motor Corporation, a joint venture between Volkswagen and General Motors and "a big company that sell millions of cars in China". The Hong Kong-listed stock is up 86 per cent over the past year, but trades on a P/E of 9.5. Or the giant China Mobile, which is the dominant mobile telco provider in China, with more than 800 million subscribers. It trades on eight times cash flow, Lai says, and that's after having jumped 65 per cent over the past 12 months.

A bet on China is also a bet that the government can continue to reform and rebalance the country's economy and steer it towards a more sustainable future.

"If economic reforms can continue to progress towards a more equitable and ecologically sound outcome, and the country can allocate capital better, then I think the market today is very cheap," Lai says. But he warns: "If the reform stalls, then we would have to reassess the market and our investment".

http://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/why-shanghai-and-hong-kong-are-the-worlds-cheapest-sharemarket-bubbles-20150423-1mr279.html

Inflation through the ages. Loss of purchasing power of your cash.

It is about value, not price

Monday, April 20, 2015

QAF Limited: $1.14 a share is cheaper than 93c a share?

One year ago, when QAF Limited's stock was trading at 93c a share, I observed that the PE ratio was 16.6x and I said that to buy in at that price would be making an assumption that earnings could improve dramatically in the future. There were pertinent concerns such as rising costs of doing business as well as the weak Australian Dollar and how these could continue to weigh down performance.

Well, for the full year 2014, QAF Limited has exceeded expectations as earnings per share (EPS) improved 46.4% from 5.6c to 8.2c, year on year. With the Australian Dollar having weakened further against the Singapore Dollar, how did this happen?

There was a one off contribution by Oxdale Dairy through the sale of its dairy business. Group operating profit, thus, received a boost of $1.6m. This will not be repeated, of course. However, considering the fact that Group profit improved some $15.7m (before tax), not having this one off contribution in the current year would still mean that QAF Limited would do very well, everything else remaining equal.

All business segments did well but the lion share of the improvement came from Rivalea, an Australian business segment. Operating profits improved threefold although revenue stayed flat because of higher selling prices, better product mix, productivity gains and lower raw material costs.

Lower finance costs also helped QAF Limited to do better in 2014 as borrowings were pared down. Interest expense decreased $0.9m from $4.1m to $3.2m last year.

Today, QAF Limited's stock closed at $1.14 a share and based on an EPS of 8.2c, we are looking at a PE ratio of some 14x. Even if we remove the one off divestment gain by Oxdale Dairy, we would be looking at a PE ratio of 14.5x, thereabouts.

So, although QAF Limited's stock is priced higher now, compared to buying at 93c a share a year ago, it is actually cheaper at $1.14 a share. This is what I meant when I said that a stock could actually be cheaper although its price could be higher. It is about value, not price.



Read more here:
http://singaporeanstocksinvestor.blogspot.com/

http://singaporeanstocksinvestor.blogspot.com/2015/04/qaf-limited-114-share-is-cheaper-than.html



Comments:

1.  Price is different from value.  At price of 93 c a share, its PE was 16.6x.  At $1.14 a share, its PE was 14x.  Thus, though the price per share is higher, you are actually paying a lower multiple for its earnings.

2.  For the same reason, a $25 per share company maybe a cheaper buy than a 25 c per share company.  Compare their PEs.