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I like companies that are valued attractively relative to their rate of profit growth

 

In general, I look for companies where the projected PE ratio is between 10x and 20x and the projected PEG Ratio (PE Ratio divided by the percentage growth rate in earnings) is below 1.5x, and preferably below 1.0.

 

I prefer the projected PE ratio to be below 20x as it gives me some protection should I be wrong. A highly rated growth stock may look attractive on a PEG Ratio basis because it is growing rapidly. If growth unexpectedly falters, the share price gets hit twice, once because the earnings per share take a hit and second because the shares are de-rated. A reverse double whammy!

 

I like dividends. Generally, I want to see a forecast dividend of 3.0% or more at purchase. I am prepared to buy at a lower prospective yield but expect future dividend growth to be rapid.

 

I tend to steer clear of companies with high levels of debt. I rather liked the simple ratio that Robbie Burns mentions in his book “The Naked Trader”; net debt should be less than 3x profits!

 

Where do I find ideas and get my information?

 

Lots of reading! I subscribe to Stockopedia, Simply Wall Street, Investors Chronicle, Shares Magazine, Growth Company Investor and MoneyWeek.

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I spend much of my time looking at potential investments and finding a reason not to buy! I am happy to follow up on financial magazine tips. Using ShareScope and Stockopedia, I can see very quickly if it does not meet my criteria (growth, valuation, balance sheet). In that case, I dismiss it and move on to the next idea.

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I  do further research on those stocks that merit it by reading recent company announcements, looking at the company website, and the latest report and accounts.

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Before initiating a holding, I ask whether I can realistically see a 30% total return from the stock over the next 12 months, and I try and quantify the downside if I get it wrong.

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Stockopedia has excellent financial information on individual stocks and many ready-made stock screens based on the investment “gurus” approach. For instance, there is a Jim Slater “Zulu” principle screen that shows all the stocks that currently meet the criteria laid out in his book mentioned above. I have had several ideas from this screen over the last few years in which I have invested.

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I regularly screen for companies that have hit a new three-month share price high and then try and understand why it is doing so. If I think I have worked it out and meets my other criteria (growth, valuation, balance sheet), it may well be worth further investigation. I find this exercise particularly useful in a poor market; a stock that performs well against the general market trend is worth further research.

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I  have set up some of my stock screens on Stockopedia, VGM (Value Growth Momentum) and Earnings Upgrades (EU), which throw up ideas. I got AdEPT Telecom from my VGM screen back in September 2013.

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My VGM screen as of 18th January 2021:

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Stockopedia has a “traffic light” system for seeing quickly how a stock compares on several metrics with its industry/ sector and with the market as a whole. Stockopedia also has its scoring system for Growth, Value, Quality, and Momentum, which combines into one overall score, the StockRank.

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Example of a stock sheet, Sylvania Platinum from Stockopedia:

I use daily OHLC Bars, (High, Low, Close) for the share price. It shows the range during the day and the closing price.

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Currently, I use three moving averages; 20 days (amber), 50 days (blue), and 200 days (red).

 

The green “b’s” and “S’s” along the top of the chart are directors buying and selling. On ShareScope, if you hover your pointer over the “b” or “s” a pop-up box will tell you the size and price of the director trade.

 

The letters along the bottom are “R” for results, “X” for ex-dividend, and “D” for dividend pay date.

 

The “B’s” and “S’s” on the bars are when the JIC Portfolio bought and sold. On ShareScope if you hover over them with your mouse it gives the trade details; how many shares, price, and value.

 

The “channel” made by the black line at the bottom and the green line at the top is the 12-month lows and highs respectively. Ideally, both lines will be gradually moving upwards. If the stock is continually making new 12-month lows it looks like one to watch rather than buy! I want to be in stocks that are regularly establishing new 12-month highs. 

 

I feel most comfortable investing in stocks that are performing well, (have a nice trend) and are above their 200 DMA, (day moving average). The 200 DMA can often act as support and as a buying opportunity. If the share price drops through it, that sets alarm bells ringing. If the 50 DMA crosses the 200 DMA going upwards I often see that as a good sign to buy.

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How many stocks do I hold?

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I generally hold between 20 and 25 holdings. I feel comfortable with this as I believe it gives me a reasonable balance between the risk of focusing on too few stocks, (high portfolio volatility) and having so many, that any individual stock has little impact on the whole portfolio.  At the time of writing, the JIC Portfolio has 23 positions, eight of which are investment trusts or ETF’s.

 

Naturally, my largest positions will comprise those stocks where I have a high conviction that the upside I am expecting will be realised. Coupled with this, I try to assess what the downside might be if I’m wrong.  Currently, three of my largest 10 holdings are investment trusts, where my main risk is getting the theme wrong rather than individual stock risk. Sure, if metals prices start to fall, BlackRock World Mining is unlikely to emerge unscathed; likewise, it is highly unlikely that I will come in one morning and find it down 30% due to a profit warning!

 

In conclusion, I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer to the number of positions one holds. I think it is more an art than science, with different investors taking different approaches. It’s all about judgment, what one is aiming to achieve, and ultimately, what one feels comfortable with.

 

How do I decide how much to invest in each position?

 

I try to align my stock weightings in the JIC Portfolio with my rating of each stock’s potential, (reward) and risk.

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This approach came from a super investment book, “Excellent Investing: How to Build a Winning Portfolio” by Mark Simpson. He proposes a disciplined way of matching one’s weighting in stock to the expected risk/reward.

 

As a result, I rank stocks on risk, (potential downside), as low, medium or high and on reward (potential gain), also as low, medium or high.  The most attractive investments would clearly be low risk/high reward into which I invest a whole “unit”. Medium risk/ high reward and low risk/medium reward have target weightings of two-thirds of a unit. Finally, high risk/high reward stocks have a target weighting of one-third of a unit as would medium risk/medium reward. If the expected reward was low, one simply wouldn’t hold it at all, whatever the risk rating.

 

I settled on a unit size of 7.5% of the Portfolio. This leads to three target weightings of 7.5%, 5.0% and 2.5%.

 

The view of the JIC Portfolio on the website has two columns ranking each stock, one on risk and the other on the reward.

 

When assessing risk, the main factors I look at are: Where does the company operate; how volatile is its business; what is its competitive position; how strong is the balance sheet and what are its growth prospects.

 

When it comes to reward, valuation is the main factor; what is the upside on the valuation front. I also look at the share price chart to assess whether the market is starting to see the potential. There is no point buying if the share price is in a clear downtrend. I might be missing something.

 

There is, of course, a degree of subjectivity involved. For instance, I rank Sylvania Platinum as medium-risk due to its strong balance sheet and strong cash flow.  Some might argue it should be high-risk due to it being based in South Africa and its financial health being subject to the price of a commodity, platinum, where the price can be volatile. There is no right and wrong answer. It is purely my judgement that medium risk adequately reflects the inherent risk of investing in the company.
 

On reward, I rank it as high because I think the current valuation leaves enough upside over the next year to suggest it will appreciate by more than 20%.

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One of the benefits of this approach is that it provides a good point of discussion. Central Asia Metals was in my judgement, high risk because it is based in Kazakhstan. I recently changed it to medium risk after a discussion with a holder of the stock. He convinced me that Kazakhstan was no riskier than South Africa.  The point is,  my judgement is open for discussion and others are free to disagree and put their own rating on a stock. Some might think that stocks in the commodity sector should all be High risk, as even at the best of times, it is difficult to forecast commodity prices with any real conviction. I just think it is a good way to think about the risks and rewards and how much exposure one should have.

 

Venture Life Group is currently, (18th January 2021) the only individual company in the portfolio that I judge as low-risk/high-reward. With it trading at 16.5x 2021 earnings for 23% earnings growth, (a PEG ratio of 0.8), good momentum in the business, likely earnings upgrades, exposure to the growing Chinese market, and the prospect of further earnings enhancing acquisitions, I think it merits a high-reward rating. The fact that it is a reasonably “defensive” business, in that it sells everyday consumer health products, is based in Europe and has no debt, merits a low-risk rating.

 

Some may disagree and that’s fine as there is not a 100% correct answer.

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Whenever I review a stock, I refer to my risk/reward rating and consider whether it is still appropriate. When I make a change, I record the reasoning in my diary.

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What are my expectations on the “Reward” rating? 

• Low Reward: Less than 10.0% total return, (including dividends) over the next 12 months

• Medium Reward: Between 10% and 20% total return over the next 12 months

• High Reward: More than 20% total return over the next 12 months.

 

Again, this is not an exact science but one that is principally driven by the current valuation. Taking Sylvania Platinum:

I first bought a position in Sylvania Platinum in September 2019 when it was valued at a prospective PE ratio of 5.0x for 44% growth and had a prospective dividend yield of 4.8%. A high-reward rating seemed the only option.

Sixteen months on, the shares are up three-fold but are still only valued at around 10x prospective earnings forecasts. Those earnings forecasts look far too low given the current price of platinum group metals and are likely to be upgraded at the next results, further bringing down the PE ratio. Cash flow is very strong and the projected June 2021 dividend yield is currently 10.3%. I’m happy to stick with high-reward.

 

When do I sell?

In many ways, this is far more difficult than when to buy.

Often, I sell or at least reduce when the share price drops through my stop loss. I use a trailing stop loss which moves up as the share price moves up. It means that one will rarely will I sell at the peak in a share price, (who does?), but will get out once the share price trend appears to have changed.

If I am unfortunate enough to hold a stock that issues a profit warning I tend to get out. Humans are generally optimists and management rarely communicates how bad things really are, either because they cannot see how bad it is or because they have an innate optimism that things will get better, or that they can make them better. Things normally get worse before they get better and as the old saying goes “profit warnings are like buses, they come in threes.”

I might also sell to reduce the concentration in my portfolio to a particular stock or sector if I feel it has got too high.

The last reason for selling/reducing is when the valuation no longer seems as attractive, (my reward rating drops from high to medium or medium to low), and I have a more compelling opportunity in which to invest the proceeds.

 

For all my holdings, I set a level at which I review the holding; both up and down

 

I do not put automatic stop losses on with my online broker; I like to have control of when I sell and in any case, I tend to look at the closing price. I don’t like being taken out by an intra-day spike down in the share price which proves temporary.

 

My view learned through bitter experience, is that it is best to cut losses quickly. Conversely, you should let your winners run. As Warren Buffet said, “cut out your weeds and water your flowers”! All too often we are tempted to do the opposite. We add to our losers as it reinforces our original decision to buy it: “I was right to buy it at 100p so I must be even more right to buy more at 85p, after all, it looks cheaper. Oh, and I will fund my purchase by selling some of my holding in another stock which is doing really well!”

 

My opinion is that one should sell and move on – it saves a lot of emotional heartaches as well as money. The only stocks I really worry about are the stocks that I hold as they are the only ones that can damage my wealth should their share prices collapse. Stocks that are going up that I do not hold are just “opportunities lost”. In other words, if I cut a holding because it looks like it is going to damage the overall portfolio, I do not beat myself up if it bounces afterward!

 

I set my stop loss at a level where the trend would look as though it has changed from moving upwards to downwards.  A chartist whom I used to follow in the City showed me a simple rule which I quite liked; if you put a chart up on the wall and step back to the other side of the room, you can get a pretty good idea what the trend in the share price is. If it looks like it has changed then I will seriously consider selling.

 

Investment Trusts

 

Where I do have overseas exposure it is generally through holdings in investment funds. I prefer Investment Trusts but also use Exchange Traded Funds. I have long been a fan of investment trusts:

• You can often invest when the shares stand at a discount to NAV (Net Asset Value) with the expectation of the discount closing and in some cases moving to a premium.

• The total annual charges on investment trusts are, in general, lower than with Open Ended Investment Companies, (OEIC)

• An OEIC manager has what might seem a “nice” problem when there are lots of new buyers as he has lots of new cash to invest. However, he may be forced to buy stocks that no longer look attractive and drive the price up even further. When flows move the other way, either due to a market correction or poor performance, the manager is then forced to sell stocks to meet redemptions, thus driving the price down further. That is partly why towards the end of a “bear” market you see stocks being sold when the valuations look ludicrously cheap. The manager is being forced to sell! The manager of an investment trust, however, has a stable portfolio to manage without daily inflows and outflows.

 

I also use investment trusts to gain exposure to a theme, especially where I do not have the expertise to pick individual stocks myself; I prefer to leave it to the experts! I currently own The Biotech Growth Trust to gain my exposure to the biotechnology theme, in healthcare I own the Worldwide Healthcare Trust, and for resources, the BlackRock World Mining Trust

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...and finally Discipline!

 

Discipline is very important. The discipline not to get sucked into a stock because the story sounds good, (but it does not meet your criteria), the discipline to ignore all the “emotional” chatter that goes on that can make you act on impulse rather than in the cold light of day and the discipline to cut positions when you should and not to be worried about admitting you were wrong.

 

It’s easier said than done and over the years I can count many occurrences when ill-discipline has let me down; must try to do better!