Everyone tends to see the same things, read the same newspapers and get the same data feeds. The only way to arrive at a different answer from everybody else is to organize the data in different ways, or bring to the analytic process things that are not typically present.

Bill Miller, 6.19.05

每个人都趋向于看同样的东西，读同样的报纸和得到同样的数据。唯一能达到与其它人不同答案的方式就是用不同的方法来组织数据，或者运用不是很流行的分析分析程序。

 

One of the best lessons I learned early on was to look at companies as companies first – to understand what they want to achieve and the likelihood they can achieve it.  People too often focus on stocks first and think they can generate an edge in how they’re looking at valuation. In the end, static valuation is relatively efficient and it's what companies do that drives their futures.

Oliver Kratz, 6.29.07

我早期得到的最好的教训就是把公司首先当作公司来看，要了解它想达到的目标和和达到此目标的可能性。投资大众首先过于关注股票，以为他们在考虑估值时具有优势。结果，静态的估值只是相对地有效and it’s what companies do that drives their futures。

 

One of the biggest things we struggle with in training people is driving home the fact that you cannot have an opinion about an investment unless you really understand what the consensus is and are then able to articulate why the consensus is wrong.

Jon Jacobson, 2.28.06

我们在培训投资者时最重要的一件事就是努力使他们理解这样一个事实：除非你真正地了解多数人的意见是什么，然后能够清清楚楚是解释为什么这个多数人的意见是错误的，否则不能对一个投资表达意见。

 

As Jeremy Siegel writes in his well researched The Future for Investors: "The long-term return on a stock depends not on the actual growth of its earnings, but on the difference between its actual earnings growth and the growth that investors expected." Something to consider every time you buy a stock, especially if you’re betting on “sweeping trends.”

VII, 7.29.05

如同杰里米·西格尔在他做过充分研究的《投资者的未来》中所写：“股票的长期回报不依赖于利润的实际增长，而在于利润实际增长和投资者期望的增长之间的差异。”这是你每次买一只股票时都要考虑清楚的，特别当你赌趋势的时候。

 

We spend a lot of time trying to figure out how competitors would attack the business

of the company we’re interested in. The harder that is, the more interested we are. We try to avoid markets perceived to be so attractive that capital could start pouring in at any time.

Mario Cibelli, 6.30.06

我们花了大量的时间试着弄清楚竞争者会怎样对我们感兴趣的公司的业务发起攻击。这个过程越艰难，我们会越感兴趣。我们尽量避免让市场察觉到其如此有吸引力，以至于于资金随时倾泻而至。

 

I’m a big believer that a company’s success is about execution and the hundreds of little things that one company does better than another. We want to understand that for the companies we invest in: is the party line what’s actually taking place in the branches? In bad companies, there’s an enormous difference.

Thomas Brown, 10.28.05

我非常相信一家公司的成功是由于管理层和数以百计的小事要比其它公司做得好。对于我们投资的公司，我们要了解的是：这些政策路线在其分支机构部门得到实施了吗？对于差的公司，其间会有巨大的差异。

 

There are characteristics that have been proven over long periods to be associated

with above-average rates of return: low P/Es, discounts to book value, low debt/equity ratios, stocks with recent significant price declines, companies with patterns of insider buying and – something we’re paying a lot more attention to – stocks with high dividend yields.

Will Browne, 9.29.06

与长期回报高于平均水平相关的股票特征有很多：低市盈率、打折的净资产、低资产负债率，近期股价大幅下跌，公司内部人士买入——有一个指标我们特别关注，就是高股息率。

 

True sources of sustainable competitive advantage fall into four categories [according to The Little Book That Builds Wealth]: 1) Intangible assets, such as brands, patents or regulatory licenses; 2) High customer switching costs; 3) Network economics, in  which the value of the product or service increases with the number of users; and 4) Cost advantages, stemming from scale, location or unique processes. Such attributes can provide the competitive barriers to entry and pricing power that allow companies to generate high returns on capital over long periods of time.

VII, 5.30.08

真正持久的竞争优势有四个（按照《巴菲特的护城河》所论）：1、品牌、专利和注册证书等无形资产；2、较高怕客户转换成本；3、经济网络，其中产品或服务的价值随着使用者的增加而增加；4、成本优势，源自流程、行业地位、规模。这些特点可以提供进入的竞争屏障和定价能力，使得公司在长时间内产生高的资产回报。

 

I think the number one variable in the investing equation that Wall Street overlooks

is margin leverage. Most investors focus on leverage from sales growth, which is relatively easy to figure out and everybody looks at that. But in the great organic growth stories, a lot of the share price upside has come from these companies increasing operating and net margins as they grow. Margin leverage tends to go along with a company having an enduring competitive moat.

Arne Alsin, 11.30.05

我认为华尔街所忽视的投资方程中的第一个变量就是利润率杠杆。多数投资者专注于相对容易计算的销售成长杠杆，每个人都会看这个。但是在一个伟大的内生性成长的故事中，很多股价的上涨是缘于这些公司运营利润和净利润的增长。利润率通常都伴随着公司具有一个持久的护城河。

 

Our favorite way to get paid is to find companies with below-normal margins for

reasons that are fixable and in their control, and to which the market is not giving

the benefit of the doubt. In those, you get paid two ways – if you’re right, both the

earnings and the multiple improve.

Stephen Roseman, 9.29.06

我们最喜欢的方式是找到那些低于正常利润率（固定的和可控的）的公司，市场对此不会判罚。这样的话，你会双重受益------如果你选对了，利润和倍数会双重改善。

 

Our experience shows there’s a positive correlation between improvements in a

company’s return on invested capital and its stock performance. More than anything,

we’re looking for inflections in businesses where some sort of structural change will drive returns on invested capital to be materially higher.

Joe Wolf, 4.30.07

我们的经验表明，一家公司ROIC的改善与其股票的表现正相关。重中之重，我们寻找业务有变化，能够使ROIC得以大大提高的机会。

 

An area on which we spend a lot of effort is to define how big the runway of opportunity is in the business. We’re not looking for short-term or arbitrage opportunities, but cases where we can see a reasonable probability of a huge upside, which we’re not paying for.

Robert Jaffe, 12.22.06

 

The most important thing I figured out early on was the benefit when investing in

turnarounds of focusing on companies that operate in growing markets. If a company has market growth as a tail wind, it’s quite a bit easier for management to execute an operational turnaround.

Kevin O’Boyle, 11.21.07

 

I like to see multiple levers in an investment that will allow me to win. I think your margin of safety is directly correlated to the number of levers. It could be the ability to double sales over four or five years. It could be margin leverage. It could be leverage from undervalued assets that management can use to unlock value. It could be a huge cash position that might be used to buy back stock, pay a dividend or invest in growth.

Arne Alsin, 11.30.05

 

Many times companies find themselves in what the market considers predicaments because they have been far-sighted and are spending on future opportunities. The good thing about that type of spending from a shareholder’s standpoint is that if the company is right, you benefit, and if it turns out to be wrong, it stops spending the money and you also benefit.

Murray Stahl, 11.21.07

经常有许多公司发现他们自己处于市场所认为的困境，因为他们高瞻远瞩对未来的机会投资。从股东的角度来讲，这种类型投资的好处是，如果公司是正确的，你会受益；如果是错误的，他们停止花钱了，你也会受益。

 

Stock prices go up for two primary reasons. The first is investors’ willingness to

pay a higher multiple for a company’s earnings or cash flows. That’s what traditional

value managers look for –undervalued securities that will be more richly rewarded in the future. We’re trying to find that as well, but we’re also looking for evidence of fundamental turnarounds and the additional stock price upside that comes from higher

earnings expectations.

Ronald Mushock, 10.31.07

股票价格上涨有两个主要原因。一是投资者愿意为公司的利润或现金流付出高的倍数。这是传统的价值投资经理所寻找的——低估的证券在未来可以得到更丰厚的回报。我们同样也想找到它，但我们也寻找基本面发生转折的迹象，额外的股票价格上涨源于较高的利润期望值。

 

If something is cheap but the business dynamics aren’t great, time can be your enemy unless you see a clear catalyst for value to be recognized.

Jeffrey Tannenbaum, 7.31.07

如果有些东西很便宜，商务动态学（又是一个新概念）也不是很强，时间就会是你的敌人，除非你看到一个清晰的价值催化剂等待被认可。

 

Discounted cash flow to us is sort of like the Hubble telescope – you turn it a fraction

of an inch and you’re in a different galaxy. There are just so many variables in this kind of analysis – that’s not for us.

Curtis Jensen, 5.22.05

DCF对我们有几分象哈勃望远镜——你调整了一英寸的零头，你看到的就会是不同的星系了。这种分析中有如此多的变量——这不适合我们。

 

We rarely use discounted cash flow to calculate target prices. We just don't think it's worth the effort except for very stable businesses such as toll roads or utilities.

Francisco García Paramés, 11.26.08

我们极少用DCF来计算目标价格。我们认为这是不值得花时间做的事，除非是象收费公司和公用类稳定的公司。

 

People often say they emphasize the quality of management or the competitive moat of a company, but the problem with some of those generalizations is that companies with those attributes are very often not attractively priced.

Ric Dillon, 6.29.07

人们经常说道他们重视一家公司的管理质量或者竞争优势，但有一个普遍的问题是具有这样品质公司不经常具有理想的价格。