Lesson 9 Balance sheet part 2
Current ratio was
the most important figure for Graham, at least when he published the
book Security Analysis. It measures the liquidity and financial
buffers. He thought this ratio was a reasonably accurate view of how
much money could the owners get by liquidating the company. There are
three possible reasons and their combinations why the market cap is
less than the possible liquidating value:
- The price that market offers is too low
- The company´s directors have made serious mistakes.
- The owners have a wrong attitude toward there assets.
You should
remember that debts are real and the value of assets has to be
disputed. You also have to remember that there is no possibility to
define the exact liquidation value. This value needs to be compared
with the price the market is offering. If your valuation is close to
the market price, you can´t make any conclusions. The liquidation is
in the best use in the situation where the company or some of it´s
parts need to be liquidated. When the company has economic
difficulties, the most productive parts of the company will be sold
in fraction of their real value. When there is no such need, the
liquidation values are much higher.
Graham had some
simple ways of valuing the company assets:
- Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities 100% of book value
- Receivables 75-90%, approximately 80% on average
- Inventories 50-75%, approximately 2/3 on average
- Others like real estate, intangible assets, and machinery, 1-50%, 15% on average
Of course, these
are just approximate numbers, but it is better to be roughly right
than completely wrong. Getting these numbers is more an art than
science, except the cash and marketable securities part of valuation.
These numbers also depend on the industry. The values of Inventories
in the electronics industry become obsolete very fast compared to
some other industries. And the inventories of the oil refineries can
become more expensive, when oil prices increases. Machinery can also
become worthless before all the depreciation has affected the assets
in the assets. Intangible assets are hard to evaluate. Sometimes
brands are much more valuable than what is their worth in the assets.
You can find more exact information from the Graham´s book Security
Analysis.
It is hard to find
businesses that has undervalued assets in modern days. Most
undervaluations come from intangible assets and their values are hard
to define. Most often, companies with undervalued assets are found
after a longer decline of the market prices. Graham thought you
should sell the business, if the price in the markets has been a lot
more lower than the liquidation value. In this case, you should ask
yourself that is there any basis for keeping a company public or what
should the directors do to correct the undervaluation. This can
happen in three ways of a combination of them:
- Improving the earnings power. It can happen through the improvement of the business conditions of the industry or changing the business into more productive by having new directors or trusting the current ones. It is most probable that new directors can achieve this change.
- Through mergers or acquisitions. Directors of the other company might have better chances to change the business into better direction. There can also have some synergies by having a bigger business.
- A public offer for the company or for its parts
Stock price that
is well below the liquidation value of the company doesn´t
automatically mean that you should buy the stock of an individual
company. Instead of buying individuals stocks, Graham recommended to
buy a diversified portfolio in which all the stocks are bought below
liquidation values. It is clear that not all these kind of stocks are
worth buying. They won´t fulfill all the expectations. As an
investor, you are still pretty much in the safe place, because you
shouldn´t be too worried about losing all your money. Graham also
mentioned that you should still be sure to do your homework before
buying. These companies should have shown so much earnings power in
the past compared to market price today that they are not destroying
the assets in the balance sheet. For some reason Graham had an image
that these companies were the most successful, when the market prices
weren´t in their highs or lows.
I hope you can
find some time to think about Graham´s simple ways of valuing the
company assets. Do you find them applicable in today´s world?
-TT