Sunday, 3 June 2012

Why Is Value Investing Essential?

By Ian Tate


With roots that date back to the 1930s, value investing is a price-driven discipline that seeks companies whose shares are selling at a discount to their true, or intrinsic, value.

Investors that are growth-oriented focus on firms whose earnings are growing at a rapid pace which is a quality that makes them highly sought after but for value investors, what they seek are companies that are temporarily out of favor. Their shares may be depressed due to factors ranging from company-specific issues to shifting investor sentiment, poor economic conditions, cyclical trends or an overall market decline. There are times when they are being ignored by the market for no good reason.

Over the past 25 years, performance, diversification and risk control are the three factors that have amply made the case for the value style of investing.

Facts about performance. First and foremost, value investing as a strategy has done well over time, rewarding investors with strong risk-adjusted performance. This has actually been true over the past quarter-century.

Another important thing you need to remember is that dividends, particularly those of value stocks, have and continued to be a significant component of the stock market's total returns.

All about diversification. Over time, value and growth stocks have tended to move in different cycles. When growth stocks are in favor, they tend to outperform value shares, and vice versa. Encouraging many investors to construct portfolios employing both value and growth strategies and helping to ensure that they have equity investment with the potential to perform in changing market environments is that kind of knowledge.

More to the point, the value strategy has more than held its own against its growth counterpart. The outperformance of value has been particularly pronounced in recent years.

When it comes to risk control. By their nature, value stocks generally tend to be less volatile than their growth counterparts. In addition, because their shares are typically selling at depressed prices, value firms are better positioned to withstand market declines. But normally having higher earning expectations that are built into their prices are shares of growth companies which means that they are subject to wider price swings as those expectations change.




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