Value Investing: From Graham to Buffett and Beyond (Wiley Finance)

"A must-read for all disciples of value investing. In 1934, Graham and Dodd created fundamental security analysis. Greenwald reinforces the worth of this approach, incorporates new advances, and takes their work into the twenty-first century."
-Mario J. Gabelli, Chairman, Gabelli Asset Management, Inc.

"The new title most deserving of your time is Value Investing . . . . Its authors aim to place their work next to Benjamin Graham's 1950 classic, The Intelligent Investor. My 1986 edition came with Warren Buffett's endorsement-`by far the best book on investing ever written.' Value Investing is better."
-Robert Barker, BusinessWeek

"Greenwald is an economist (PhD from MIT) who caught the value bug. He has updated and expanded Graham's ideas, and his summer seminars ($2,900 for two days) have become popular with everyone from well-known money managers to Columbia MBAs who couldn't get into Greenwald's class. But now there is a cheaper way . . . Greenwald probably won't outsell Graham, but I think he ought to."
-Paul Sturm, SmartMoney magazine

"Greenwald's book is a lively defense of, and handbook for, value investing, complete with glimpses of how it's practiced by pros like Warren Buffett and Mario Gabelli."
-George Mannes, TheStreet.com

"Essential reading for anyone looking for a fresh perspective on analyzing companies and selecting investments."
-Pat Dorsey, Morningstar.com

I think the authors' Earnings Power Value (EPV) approach to valuing a company is cutting edge. (Basically EPV is a rehash of Enterprise Value.) Most investors tend to value stocks based on P/E ratios - only looking at equity in a company. However, the proper way to value a company is to look at its whole capital structure - Debt, Equity & Cash. EPV is a much better tool than the P/E ratio for calculating whether a company is undervalued.

The second part of the book that profiles a half dozen or so successful value investors is interesting. It illustrates there are many different ways to execute a value oriented approach. The profiles do not give any hard cut rules that each investor follows, but it does give you a general idea. (I have been successful at applying some of the ideas in managing my own account.) The only flaw of the profiles is the lack of any type of track record. It would have been helpful to list the year-by-year returns for each investor compared to an index. (i.e. S&P 500 Index)

Overall, it's a great book and it deserves a spot behind Ben Graham's Security Analysis and Intelligent Investor.


Must-read for serious investors of any stripe   August 12, 2006
Scott Allen (New York)
31 out of 31 found this review helpful

A must-read for investors of any stripe, growth or value. This book, written by a couple of the most popular professors at Columbia Business School, explains the innovations in the field of value investing as practiced by some of the most successful investors in the field. (fair disclosure: I took Prof. Greenwald's courses in 2007) This book successfully bridges the gap between the traditional Graham & Dodd style of value investing to what works today. Although it's a paperback, it's written with the density of a textbook. The writing style is not light, and the actual meat of the book takes some time to wade through. If you don't have some experience in accounting or corporate finance, then Joel Greenblatt's The Little Book That Beats the Market is good to read first.

The substance of this book is a process for modern value investing: value investing is not investing in lousy companies just because they appear cheap. The authors also teach a structured way to value a company. Finally, the authors address how to value growth.

First, before reading this book I had the mistaken impression that value investing was all about investing in the ugliest, least interesting company you could find just because it had a low P/E ratio. I was completely wrong! (Maybe I have attended too many stock pitch sessions and heard too many poultry stocks and encyclopedia companies get pitched.) Modern value investing, according the authors: "When B. Graham went scouring financial statements looking for his net-nets, it did not concern him that he may have known little about the industry in which he found his targets. All he was concerned with were asset values and a margin of safety by that measure. A contemporary value investor had better be able to identify and understand the sources of a company's franchise and the nature of its competitive advantages. Otherwise he or she is just another punter, taking a flier rather than making an investment." What a breath of fresh air to read this passage.

Second, this book lays out a structured way to value a company by first looking at reproduction costs of assets, then earnings power, and finally the value of profitable growth. I, like the authors, find traditional DCF valuations to be plagued by false precision. The authors' more practical method starts by adjusting the balance GAAP balance sheet to calculate the cost of the assets for a potential business entrant. Next, the company is valued based on the earnings generates consistently, assuming no growth. A key insight is the value of the franchise: the difference between asset value and Earnings Power Value is the value created by a company that has significant competitive advantage. Last, the value of profitable growth is considered.

As a self-admitted recovering growth stock addict, I learned from this book that value investors are skeptical about growth for two reasons. One reason is that it is so hard to predict, but more important, many times growth is not worth much. Unless the return on capital (ROC) of the company is higher than the cost of capital, growth does not create value. (I am a slow learner; Greenblatt's example in The Little Book That Beats the Market of opening an additional gum store is even clearer to me.) The growth matrix and formulas in the book were a revelation to me. The surprising thing is how little multiple expansion a stock deserves based on growth. Unless a company truly has a franchise, expanding into other areas and "diversifying" the business often destroys value. And growth for growth's sake will not make a stock go up.

This book brings value investing into the modern stock market. Modern value investors still use traditional valuation principles in a structured way, but they also consider the value of growth and the attractiveness of the business. What a relief, I not restricted to buying typewriter and pay phone stocks! The authors quote Warren Buffett: It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price.


Serves as Both a Great Primer & Also a Great Idea Generator   March 3, 2002
S. Schneider (USA)
48 out of 54 found this review helpful

Ben Graham may have done for investing what Euclid did for geometry, but the Graham student must take a long and winding road to collect and organize Grahamian "theorems." Greenwald modernizes and thoughtfully organizes the value framework originally expounded by Graham, and shows how investors might take -and in the final section of the book, how several master investors DO take- Graham's notion of buying dollar bills for fifty cents and apply this central idea in creative ways to some of the less frequented areas of the market.

Greenwald et.al. show a terrific aptitude for remaining informal and conversational while maintaining brevity and orderliness. Neophytes are unlikely to encounter a clearer, more concise explanation of `discounting future cash flows', and most students of value investing will be well-served by Greenwald's order of equity valuation: (1) Asset Value, (2) Earnings Power, (3) Growth, all of which are clearly explained. Additionally, Greenwald discusses a useful addition to common metrics such as `net asset value' and `liquidation value' with the concept of `replacement cost'. Greenwald also acknowledges and thoughtfully attempts to quantify the value investor's less traditionally acknowledged principle of `franchise value', which he judiciously attributes to Warren Buffett as the latter's singular contribution to investment analysis.

The book's admirable brevity is also its primary shortcoming. Whereas Graham included senior debt and convertible debt vehicles both in Security Analysis and in his investment practices, this text is for all practical purposes only an examination of equities. If the authors of "Value Investing" ever opt to write about a value approach to bonds and other instruments, I'll bet they'd have a captive audience.


All Value Investors Will Want To Read   July 19, 2001
Gary Wilson (Brisbane, Queensland Australia)
16 out of 16 found this review helpful

"Value Investing" is a book most value investors will want to read. As I progressed through the early Chapters of the book I was starting to form the impression that this book was the best of its type I have read - and I have read more than a few!! In the end I backed off giving the book "superstar" status but would still without reservation place it in the 5 stars must read category - especially for those about to read their first book on "value investing".

Chapter 3 discussing the "Three Slices of Value" is the highlight of the book. The book is very readable - and unlike many similar texts has a good blend of the conceptual with quantitative examples. For those that have already read extensively in this area the second part of the book on famous value investors will be going over old ground.

From time to time the book raises concepts such as "Enterprise Value" and "Dividend Discount Model" with little or no explanation which could leave the novice reader frustrated. The book also leaves few clues about further resources that the reader might tap to dig even deeper into the topic.

Despite these negatives a great addition to my library which I have already gone back to for reference purposes.


Best Investing Course in Print   February 14, 2002
16 out of 16 found this review helpful

I have read numerous books on the topic of investing, including Security Analysis, The Intelligent Investor, Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, One Up on Wall Street, Beat the Street, The Warren Buffett Way, and more. But this book is the most detailed and usefully instructive that I have found - at least since The Intelligent Investor. If you have an interest in accurately modeling the investment philosophies of the most successful investors, you will find this book to be invaluable.