April 2014 Client Letter

During most stock-market cycles, usually in the later stages of a bull market, investor behavior can take a speculative turn. Caution is thrown to the wind as consensus builds that the market has nowhere to go but up. Investments considered safe fall out of favor, carefully developed asset-allocation plans are abandoned, and risky investments become fashionable.

These periods can lead to emotionally charged investment decisions with the potential to wreak havoc on investment portfolios. Based on anecdotal evidence we now observe (some of which we shared with you in recent letters), there are signals that investor sentiment has entered this speculative phase. Many investors today seem to worry more about generating the highest possible return (irrespective of risk) and less about crafting a suitable investment portfolio based on desired investment objectives.

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March 2014 Client Letter

Is rampant speculation bubbling under the surface of today’s stock market? In February, Facebook announced its purchase of WhatsApp, a company with $20 million in sales that was nonexistent before 2009, for $19 billion in cash and stock. WhatsApp is a mobile messaging platform allowing users to send text messages without having to pay for SMS. If you own an iPhone, Apple’s iMessage program basically does the same thing. Seems like a large sum of money for a company whose product appears to be easily replicated.

Then in March, Facebook decided to buy virtual-reality firm Oculus for $2 billion. Oculus is a 20-month-old maker of virtual-reality goggles. Oculus doesn’t yet sell a product that is available to consumers. To date, the firm’s only revenue comes from a prototype sold to developers.

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February 2014 Client Letter

On the back of over $1 trillion of virtual money-printing by the Federal Reserve, 2013 was a barnburner of a year for most U.S. stocks. Leading the way in the S&P 500 index was the consumer discretionary sector, with a 43% gain. Portfolios not packed with companies including Netflix, Best Buy, GameStop, TripAdvisor, and Priceline.com (the top-performing discretionary stocks) probably did not keep pace with the broader market.

Consumer discretionary companies are ones we tend to avoid. The fact the sector had a stellar year does not change our view. Why? At Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. we favor companies operating in high-barrier-to-entry businesses. We favor companies with durable competitive advantages and ones owning vast reserves of essential natural resources. We favor companies that have built solid brands over decades, giving them pricing power and the ability to withstand threats from competition. Above all, we favor dividend-paying stocks with a history of annual dividend increases.

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December 2013 Client Letter

Lehman Brothers was founded in 1850, became a member of the New York Stock Exchange in 1887 and in 1906 teamed with Goldman, Sachs & Co. to bring Sears, Roebuck and Company to market. Over the next 20 years, Lehman and Goldman paired up to underwrite F.W. Woolworth Company, R.H. Macy & Company, The Studebaker Corporation, B.F. Goodrich Co. and Endicott Johnson Corporation, among many others.

A little over five years ago, Lehman’s fortunes drastically changed. On Monday, September 15, 2008, the world watched in disbelief as Lehman employees removed files, company items and other belongings from its world headquarters on Seventh Avenue. Earlier that morning, the 158-year-old investment bank announced it would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

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October 2013 Client Letter

Most investors now realize the powerful influence monetary policy has on U.S. financial markets. And the most important player in the conduct of monetary policy is the chairman of the Federal Reserve.

As we have witnessed, under the Bernanke Fed, an unprecedented amount of money has been electronically created for the purchase of bonds. As the Fed continues to buy bonds, interest rates are kept artificially low. Meanwhile, the extra cash created sloshes around the financial markets, and some is used to buy stocks, bonds, and real estate. In our view, the markets have not risen entirely due to increased economic activity and an improvement in efficiency but as a result of the additional cash in the system.

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