John Neff Quotes
101 John Neff Quotes
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Many so-called value funds have suffered a rough road. As a contrarian I say that’s to be expected. When better to write a book about out-of-favor investing than when it’s out of favor?
John Neff
Individual investors enjoy a key advantage over professionals in one critical respect. You can pick and choose stocks and bide your time unflustered by the fierce and often corrosive quarterly performance sweepstakes, especially in hostile market climates.
John Neff
Value investing demands sober reflection. Scare to begin with, sober reflection gets even scarcer as bull markets progress.
John Neff
Eventually, good stocks of good companies with solid earnings and low price-earnings ratios receive the attention they deserve.
John Neff
With patience, luck, and sound judgment… you keep moving forward. That’s the nature of the investment game…
John Neff
My investment style can give investors a lucrative edge over the long haul. But if you can’t roll with the hits, or you’re in too big a hurry, you might as well keep your money in a mattress.
John Neff
Most investors feared for Citibank in May 1991. Amid real estate problems galore, and on the heels of cleaning up disastrous loans to developing countries, Citi’s prospects were bleak… Monumental hurdles remained… The stock price plunged almost daily… After weighing Citi’s situation carefully, we decided this was a good time to buy.
John Neff
[On investing in Citicorp] We experienced a much rougher ride than we had bargained for.
John Neff
Citicorp exercised Windsor’s contrarian streak from the start… Other investors paled at the losses. We reached a different conclusion: Citi’s earnings were very conservatively stated and probably would be higher.
John Neff
[To the Citibank CEO] Tough as things were, I advised him not to give up golf.
John Neff
[On investing in Citi] We endured the slings and arrows, and the outcome eventually brought sweet vindication and very handsome returns.
John Neff
Investment success does not require glamour stocks or bull markets. Judgment and fortitude were our prerequisites. Judgment singles out opportunities, fortitude enables you to live with them while the rest of the world scrambles in another direction.
John Neff
A city library became my new home.
John Neff
The Windsor portfolio when I arrived held all kinds of shabby stuff reflecting recent fads and fashions that eventually littered the marketplace. They were similar to much of what turns up in momentum funds that seek, foremost, the current fashion: biotech stocks when the biotech sector is hot, oil stocks when the oil patch is flourishing, or Internet stocks when everything ending in .com commands investors’ attention. A resemblance to the ‘tronics’ boom in the late Fifties is easy to see. In that technology-driven market, any name that hinted at a technology connection drove prices higher.
John Neff
All earnings are not equal.
John Neff
Woebegone regions have always lured me, for one very compelling reason: Swept up by flavors of the moment, prevailing wisdom frequently undervalues good companies. Many – but not all – that languish out of favor deserve better treatment. Despite their solid earnings, they are rejected and ignored by investors caught in the clutch of groupthink.
John Neff
Straight lines can throw curves…
John Neff
Most investors are great at extending straight lines. They have every confidence – or at least a dogged hope – that a hot stock or industry or mutual fund will continue on the same trajectory. Expecting more of the same invariably fuels adrenaline markets that culminate in disappointment when enthusiasm wanes.
John Neff
Our strength always depended on coaxing overlooked, out-of-favor stocks to move up from undervalued to fairly valued. We aimed for easier and less risky appreciation, and left ‘greater fool’ investing to others.
John Neff
Windsor didn’t engage in the market’s clamor for fashionable stocks; we exploited it.
John Neff
Excellent upside participation… and good protection on the downside.
John Neff
The market’s boundless capacity for poor judgment ensures a steady supply of out-of-favor candidates.
John Neff
You don’t need stunning growth rates.
John Neff
An increase in the p/e ratio, coupled with improved earnings, turbocharges the appreciation potential. Instead of a price gain merely commensurate with earnings, the stock price can appreciate 50 to 101 percent.
John Neff
I wouldn’t want to get caught in a rush for the exit, much less get left behind.
John Neff
Yield is return that shareholders can pocket.
John Neff
Yield is the more assured part of growth.
John Neff
Only time will tell whether earnings and growth rates meet expectations. But can you be confident about the yield? You can, unless a company lowers the dividend under extra-ordinary duress. In fact, good companies are much more apt to increase the dividend, which is like learning that your bank plans to increase its passbook rate.
John Neff
[On him outperforming the S&P 500 by 3.5% on average (3.1% after fees)] Yield played a formidable role.
John Neff
I never quite understood why a 15 percent grower plus a 1 percent yield usually sold at twice the price-earnings ratio of an 11 percent grower with a 5 percent yield.
John Neff
No solitary measure or pair of measures should govern a decision to buy a stock. You need to probe a whole raft of numbers and facts, searching for confirmation or contradiction.
John Neff
Fundamental analysis consists largely of appraising corporate performance against industry or market benchmarks.
John Neff
Keep tabs on stock prices posting new lows.
John Neff
Low stock prices should never trigger automatic buy signals… But in the course of my career, few days have passed when the new low list has not included one or two solid companies worth investigating.
John Neff
No prudent investor puts all the eggs in a single basket. But too much diversification hobbles performance.
John Neff
Everyone wants to own highly recognized growth stocks. They’re ordinarily quite safe, and they seldom embarrass shareholders. That’s not a very good case for buying them…
John Neff
Where there is panic, there is also opportunity.
John Neff
Much has changed in the world since I became a money manager, but the underlying nature of the investment challenge is the same.
John Neff
Low p/e stocks still offer opportunities to investors who dare to embrace them. But a crowd mentality still drives investing behavior.
John Neff
The flood of information available and the cadres of day-traders who stare mindlessly into their screens with scant perception of what companies do and a less-than-basic knowledge of the fundamentals.
John Neff
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