Learning From Sir John Templeton
June 24, 2011 3 Comments
Sir John Templeton (November 29, 1912 – July 8, 2008) was a legendary investor and a pioneer of global investing. He took value investing to an extreme, picking industries and companies he believed to be at rock bottom, or as he called it “points of maximum pessimism.”He bought when there was blood on the streets. For example,when investors fled the New York market after the Second World War was declared, Templeton borrowed $10,000 to scoop up stocks priced at less than a dollar, often in companies that were near bankruptcy. In four years, he sold the stock, paid off the debt and pocketed $40,000—the seed money for Templeton Growth Fund, a market beater for many years.
Templeton did not care where a company was located. If it was selling below what he considered to be its asset value, and if it was in an industry or nation that was “out of favor,” he was interested in it. He was among the first to invest in postwar-Japan and among the first to sell out of Japan in the mid-1980s. He was one of the very few who invested in Peru when the communist Shining Path was running rampant, and by doing so, he reaped a fortune for his investors. Read more of this post
Coca-Cola made an IPO in 1919 when it issued shares at $ 40 each. A year later, the share was quoting at $19. You might think that’s a disaster because the share had lost 50% of its value in just one year. After that there was sugar rationing and the farmers were rebellious. Years later, the Great Depression and World War II happened, there were thermonuclear weapons and what not. You could always find a reason for why that was not the right time to buy shares of Coca Cola. But if you had gone ahead and bought that one share for $40 and reinvested the dividends, your investment in Coca-Cola would be worth $5 Million today.
“If a girl is beautiful a suitor will come. If a stock is beautiful, a suitor will come. So I don’t search for suitors when I buy the stock.”
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