Greetings!
Welcome to the Member Portal for The Prudent Speculator. Here, you will find all the premium content included in your upgraded membership, such as the monthly Newsletter, weekly Market Commentary, new Stock Picks, Target Prices and much more.
A bit of background: the authors of this content are a team of portfolio managers and research analysts led by John Buckingham (pictured). In addition to writing and researching the stock market, we manage active stock portfolios—which include our newsletter stock picks.
The monthly newsletter, weekly commentaries and periodic special reports form the base with which we communicate to our subscribers and wealth management clients. Our goal is to keep our followers on the path to financial success as we like the Lao Tzu quotation, "If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading."
Current Newsletter
Edition #701
Given that the major equity market averages were in the green over the first two months of the year, following double-digit percentage returns in 2023 and 2024, we can’t say it was a big surprise to see a sizable pullback as March began. No doubt, the catalyst for the retreat was the U.S. imposition of 25% tariffs ….
Please login to view the latest newsletter or check your subscription status.
Market Commentary
Monday, March 24, 2025
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Buckingham Appearances – Miami Moneyshow Masters Symposium & San Diego AAII Week – Modest Rebound from S&P Correction Territory Volatility – Stocks Go Up and Down in the Short Term, But Have Provided Handsome Rewards in the Long-Term Patience – The Longer the Hold the Better the ….
Please login to view the latest Market Commentary or check your subscription status.
This Month’s 10 Stock Picks
Full text for each stock is available by clicking below
Please login to view the latest stock picks or check your subscription status.
Download Target Prices
Last updated: March 17, 2025
Please login to download Target Prices or check your subscription status.
Latest Buy & Sell Alert
Sales Alert Friday, March 21, 2025 (Spring Cleaning – Closed out KSS, MMM & SOLV)
We constantly state that every stock is fighting for its place in our broadly diversified portfolios and the markets often reward a handful of stocks while penalizing others. Happily, this affords opportunities for us to harvest some of our winnings on companies that traders have bid up, while replanting the ….
Please login to view the latest Buy & Sell Alert or check your subscription status.
-
Investment Insights
-
Private Client Insights
-
Wealth Foundations
-
Special Reports
-
Webinars
-
Personal Finance Calculators
-
Blog Articles
-
FAQ
Investment Insights
These insights are generally shorter, more targeted pieces that address timely opportunities or respond to recent market developments. They serve as quick-hitting, actionable ideas for subscribers while still adhering to The Prudent Speculator’s long-term, value-oriented investment approach.
Private Client Insights
Private Client Insights are a specialized investment communication designed specifically for subscribers and private wealth management clients. These insights provide more personalized and exclusive investment analysis compared to the standard newsletter content.
Wealth Foundations
A Wealth Foundation is an idea in brief, designed to be a building block and help readers build long-term wealth.
Premium Special Reports
These reports typically provide in-depth research on specific investment opportunities, market sectors or timely financial topics that warrant additional attention beyond the regular newsletter content.
Webinars & Presentations
The Prudent Speculator’s Premium Webinar Series:
The Prudent Speculator’s Complementary Webinar Series:
Essential Personal Finance Tools
A foundation for your financial life.
In today’s complex financial landscape, managing your money effectively has never been more critical. Fortunately, a wide array of personal finance tools can help you take control of your financial future, from creating budgets to planning for retirement. This comprehensive guide will explore the most powerful tools that can transform your financial strategy and help you achieve your money goals.
Loan Calculators: Making Informed Borrowing Decisions
Before taking on any loan, savvy consumers will want to use loan calculators to understand the true cost of borrowing. These powerful tools help you:
- Compare Loan Options: Quickly calculate monthly payments, total interest and loan terms across different scenarios.
- Understand Long-Term Impacts: Different interest rates and loan durations may have a big impact on your total repayment amount.
- Loan-Specific Considerations: Different loans will have different inputs and considerations. Using a specialized calculator is important.
Whether you’re considering a mortgage, personal loan or other loan, these calculators provide crucial insights that can save you big money over time.
Basic Loan Calculator
This is a flexible loan calculator that you can adjust. In addition, we offer 9 key points to keep in mind.
Auto Loan Calculator
This auto loan calculator is adjustable and makes it easy to understand how loan terms can impact your payments.
Mortgage & Home Loan Calculator
This custom mortgage and home loan calculator allows you to analyze the impact of your rate, down payment, loan amount and term.
Retirement Projection Tools: Securing Your Financial Future
Retirement planning is more complex than ever, and projection tools have become invaluable for creating a robust financial strategy. These tools let you calculate your:
- Retirement Age: Sketch out a plan between now and retirement with different savings rates and investment returns.
- Nest Egg Estimate: Evaluate how your current savings will grow until retirement.
- Retirement Savings: Understand how much you need to retire and how much you can spend in retirement.
These retirement savings tools let you see if you’re on track to meet your goals, and demonstrate how changes in the variables (such as a monthly contribution rate) impact your trajectory.
Calculate Your Retirement Age
Quickly calculate out your retirement age based on current savings, rate of return and projected contributions.
Retirement Nest Egg
Discover how much you should invest monthly for retirement based on age, income goals, and timeline.
Retirement Savings - Do You Have Enough?
Is your retirement savings plan on track? We have a customizable calculator and actionable advice to help guide your financial future and retirement.
Budget Tracking Tools: Your Financial Foundation
Budgeting is the cornerstone of personal financial management. Though there are some detailed budget tracking tools out there, a simple spreadsheet often does the trick to help you understand your household spending:
- Clear Visibility: A budget spreadsheet provides unparalleled transparency into your financial life.
- Stress Reduction & Confidence: When you know exactly where your money is going, financial anxiety diminishes. You’re no longer wondering if you can afford something—you can see it clearly in your spreadsheet.
- Spending & Saving: It’s not about restricting yourself, but about making intentional choices that align with your values and long-term objectives.
A personal budget spreadsheet is more than a financial tool—it’s a pathway to financial empowerment. It transforms abstract numbers into a clear, actionable strategy for achieving your financial dreams.
Whether you’re trying to save for a major purchase, eliminate debt, or simply gain more control over your money, a budget spreadsheet is your key to financial clarity and confidence.
Get in Touch
For more than 47 years, we have collaborated with our clients in their investment decision making process as they pursue their long-term financial goals.
We are committed to keeping your goals, concerns and attitude about investing at the heart of your plan.
If you’re considering a large purchase, but want additional guidance and ready to experience our personalized investment approach and exceptional client service, contact Jason R. Clark, CFA at 949.424.1013 or jclark@kovitz.com.
Popular Posts on The Prudent Speculator's Blog
The blog provides readers with value-focused investment insights, market commentary and stock recommendations based on their disciplined value investing philosophy established in 1977.
We regularly feature analysis of undervalued stocks, portfolio strategies, economic trends and market perspectives aimed at helping long-term investors build wealth through patient, value-oriented investing.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
We provide a list of common portfolio-related questions (FAQs) from The Prudent Speculator community along with answers from our team.
Should I buy stocks held in one of the newsletter portfolios or only buy stocks trading below the published buy limit?
We cannot provide specific investment advice, and we encourage our readers to do their own homework or consult with their financial advisor.
We understand that it can be a bit confusing, but subscribers use our publication in different ways. Some want an actual portfolio to follow, others want to build their own portfolios by picking and choosing from our Target Price list and/or the stocks we hold in one of the newsletter portfolios, and there are those who simply want one or two stocks to buy at a time.
We do our best to provide a quality experience to all, but the important thing to remember is that the goal of The Prudent Speculator is to buy and seek to harvest a broadly diversified portfolio of undervalued stocks. As long as we are willing to hold a stock in a newsletter portfolio, we have to be comfortable with a new reader adding it to his or her portfolio.
How do I find out about any changes made to the portfolios?
We announce new purchases in the newsletter and/or on our electronic Market Commentaries, while we publish any sales via our electronic Sales Alert notifications. Market Commentaries and Sales Alerts are e-mailed to subscribers and are made available on our Web site, www.theprudentspeculator.com.
How do you find the stocks that you purchase and recommend for your portfolios?
We actively follow more than 200 companies, constantly updating our analyses as corporate fundamentals, industry trends and other relevant data change. We utilize Bloomberg as our primary data provider, which allows us to regularly screen a 3000-stock universe for new positions that meet our undervalued criteria.
What is your valuation methodology?
Given our affection for Value-oriented investing, it should come as no surprise that the screens we construct to search for new ideas, as well as the analytics that we run each day to evaluate our existing holdings, center on classic metrics such as Price to Sales, EV to EBITDA, Price to Tangible Book Value, Price to Earnings per Share and Dividend Yield that historically have proved strong indicators of future investment performance.
We endeavor to determine a quantitative estimate of the future value of a stock, five years from now—our Target Price. We then determine a buy level that has an acceptable margin of safety given the quantitative and qualitative review of the company. All else equal, we are comfortable buying a dividend paying stock at a higher level because the yield will add to the capital appreciation in order to achieve the desired total return.
What is your sell discipline?
We part with stocks for a variety of reasons:
- Meets or exceeds its Target Price.
- Our research finds a candidate with more attractive risk/reward attributes.
- The stock’s evolved risk/reward profile fails to justify continued ownership.
- The stock maintains trading characteristics (e.g. sustained or increasingly weak liquidity) not suitable for continued ownership.
How should I combine recommendations in The Prudent Speculator with my other holdings?
We cannot provide specific investment advice, and we encourage our readers to do their own homework or contact us to discuss our financial planning and wealth management options.
For more information, please email pedwards@kovitz.com.
Do you rebalance your portfolios?
As we are equity investors, we do not rebalance our portfolios into other asset classes. That said, holdings are always under review to ensure we are comfortable with the weighting in our portfolios. If you had $40,000, would you put $1,000 in each stock? That is up to you.
Remember, each portfolio typically holds 80+ stocks, and subscriber experience will vary, depending on which of the stocks he/she chooses to invest in his/her own portfolio.
Are all recommended stocks in the 4 portfolios?
While not every stock on the recommended list will be in all 4 portfolios, they will reside in at least one. Remember, our newsletter portfolios are constructed with the same methodology. Yes, there will be some differences in the holdings in each, but the same investment philosophy – buying a broadly diversified basket of undervalued stocks – is utilized for each portfolio.
Why do we have the hypothetical portfolios?
As our real-money portfolios have had significant cash flows over the years, we maintain our hypothetical portfolios to illustrate how various investments might have performed with a fixed amount of money, making no deposits or withdrawals.
Each portfolio is managed using our core Prudent Speculator investment philosophy. The size and the inception date of all four portfolios varies, which has resulted in differences in stock selections, while the timing and amount of cash flows has also influenced the two real-money accounts.
As a reminder, the activity in the two hypothetical portfolios does not represent actual trading, and does not reflect the impact that economic or market factors would have on our decision-making, if we were indeed making decisions according to The Prudent Speculator strategy.
What if a stock has reached its target price but I haven’t seen a sales alert?
Our Target Prices are simply a guide and not the gospel, while they are under constant scrutiny and subject to change, so we advise those who want to do as we do to await an official Sales Alert before parting with any of our recommendations.
For your Portfolio Gains/Losses Reports, are proceeds after commissions? Do proceeds include income from dividends?
TPS and Buckingham Portfolio are real-money portfolios and, as such, commissions, interest and dividends are included. Our hypothetical portfolios also incorporate income. Of course, a Gain/Loss Report shows only purchase and sale price, and as such does not reflect dividends.
Here are some FAQs about this website and Member Portal. For help, please reach out to Phil Edwards at 949-540-7307 or email info@theprudentspeculator.com.
How do I change my password?
Navigate to the My Account tab, click Change password and enter your desired password preferences.
How can I tell when my subscription expires?
Navigate to the My Account tab and click Subscriptions where you will find your current expiration date.
I'm locked out of my account, how do I regain access?
Please send an email to info@theprudentspeculator.com to regain access to your account.
Do we offer subscriptions longer than one-year?
Yes, in addition to our monthly and one-year subscription, we offer a two-year subscription upon request.
How do I cancel my free trial?
Navigate to the My Account tab, click subscriptions and select cancel.
How can I access the four-newsletter portfolios?
Due to compliance restrictions, we are unable to host our portfolios on our website, however you may email info@theprudentspeculator.com for full access to them.
I have not been receiving emails, such as Newsletters, Market Commentaries and Sales Alerts.
After you have reviewed your spam or junk folders, please locate a previous email from The Prudent Speculator. Scroll to the bottom of the email and select Email Preferences. Upon reaching the Communication Preferences page, you will have the opportunity to opt-in to your preferred email settings. If you continue to experience issues with receiving emails, we kindly ask that you reach out to info@theprudentspeculator.com for further assistance.
How often are Target Prices posted?
Target Prices are updated and posted twice per month.
How do I update my email preferences?
We’d love to help you update your email preferences! Just email us at info@theprudentspeculator.com.
A refreshingly personal approach to private wealth management
Partner with our experienced team of wealth advisors, investment research analysts and financial planners today.
Learn what we can do for you.
We provide high net worth individuals, institutions and financial professionals with asset management and advisory strategies. Provide a few details in this form and we’ll reach out to you shortly.
Our comprehensive Private Client Services include:
We implement our respected value stock investing strategies with a focus on The Prudent Speculator’s core tenets of Patience, Diversification and Selection.
We work with you to develop target allocations that include all your investments, not just those managed by our team.
You define your retirement goals. Together, we create a custom plan that helps you reach them.
We understand the value of your legacy. Our team will analyze your current estate plans and propose enhancements that best suit your financial vision.
Smart financial planning is more than investment strategy. Together, we’ll assess your insurance needs and ensure you carry sufficient coverage.
Our comprehensive financial planning capabilities are extensive and touch on a wide range of areas, dependent on client-specific needs.
We manage our investment portfolios in-house and provide customized solutions that align you with your goals.
You may wish to enhance your legacy through philanthropy and charitable giving. Our team of advisors can help you maximize the impact of your gifts.
Working alongside your personal tax professional, our team will help analyze your savings opportunities and provide the clearest picture of how taxes may impact your financial future.
Our clients have access to a selection of proprietary investment offerings, which can be complementary to your existing investments and can improve diversification.
Schedule a free consultation today and start investing with confidence
John has more than 30 years of investment management experience and serves as Editor of The Prudent Speculator, which has been a trusted newsletter for over 45 years. He chairs the Value division’s Investment Committee, leading a team that performs comprehensive investment research and financial market analysis. You may recognize John from his contributions to Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal and Forbes, as well as frequent interviews on CNBC, Bloomberg and Fox Business News.
Jason is responsible for performing in-depth microeconomic research and fundamental analysis of individual stocks and industries. In addition, he works directly with clients to provide customized account management. After serving in the United States Navy, Jason earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in finance, summa cum laude, from the University of West Florida. Jason is a CFA charterholder and a member of the CFA Society of Orange County.
Chris joined AFAM Capital in August of 2011 and Kovitz in 2018, as part of the Kovitz acquisition of AFAM. As a member of the investment team, Chris conducts fundamental research and analysis. He is responsible for identifying new investment opportunities and maintains company, industry, and macroeconomic models. Chris earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Southern California. Chris is a CFA charterholder and a member of the CFA Society of Orange County.
Zack joined Kovitz in 2019, where he performs fundamental research for the firm’s equity strategies and works with clients to provide customized account management. He also contributes to the firm’s Market Commentary and Newsletter content. Prior to joining the firm, Zack was an analyst with a regional trust company and an independent wealth management practice. He is a veteran of the United States Navy with a Bachelor of Science in Ag Business Management from North Carolina State University and passed the Level I exam in the CFA Program.
Phil joined Kovitz in 2020 as a Business Development Analyst. Phil is responsible for the administration and execution of various tasks related to The Prudent Speculator, a Kovitz owned subscription-based newsletter. In addition, Phil is charged with analyzing and distributing content and various reports to key stakeholders. He is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he studied economics.
Alyssa joined Kovitz in 2024 as a Wealth Management Associate. In this role, Alyssa is responsible for supporting the lead advisors of the Orange County team by executing a broad range of technical, client management, and client service support tasks, while also contributes to The Prudent Speculator in the area of Wealth Management. Before joining Kovitz, Alyssa earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from San Diego State University. She then gained valuable experience at Edward Jones, where she honed her skills in finance and client management. Outside of the office, Alyssa enjoys cooking, exercising, and spending time with friends and family.
Michelle joined Kovitz in 2020 and brings with her over 23 years in the investment industry, having previously worked at Bel Air Investments, UBS, and Morgan Stanley. Michelle is responsible for overseeing the maintenance of client accounts alongside our operational support team. In addition, Michelle oversees the delivery of important client communications. When not in the office, Michelle enjoys exploring what California has to offer.
Our Unique Approach
Value Strategy
We have never wavered in our commitment to the time-tested value investing methodology we’ve implemented for 45+ years, with extensive experience on the investment team dating back to 1987.Hands-On + Personal
Your advisor is a voting member of the investment team. This differentiates us from other firms, as our portfolio management decisions never get lost down the chain of command.Advising with Integrity
We invest right alongside our clients. Each member of the investment team has the lion’s share of their personal net worth in the same strategies we implement for clients. We happily eat our own cooking.
Access our most popular Wealth Management resources.
Search Our Archives
Important Search Pointers: Because we index data back to 1977, ticker-based searches can be challenging. It is likely more fruitful to search for “Walt Disney” or “Disney” instead of ticker “DIS”.
The default search will consider all words in your query. Wilson Foods will yield all results with Wilson and all results with Foods. Adding quotation marks will require a specific string for enhanced precision, such as “Wilson Foods”.
Click the Search button when you have entered your query.
Please ensure you are logged to use the search tool.
Have a question? We are here to help.
We can be reached at (800) 258-7786 or info@theprudentspeculator.com. Our mailing address is:20 EnterpriseSuite 305Aliso Viejo, CA 92656
Welcome
Greetings!
Welcome to the Member Portal for The Prudent Speculator. Here, you will find all the premium content included in your upgraded membership, such as the monthly Newsletter, weekly Market Commentary, new Stock Picks, Target Prices and much more.
A bit of background: the authors of this content are a team of portfolio managers and research analysts led by John Buckingham (pictured). In addition to writing and researching the stock market, we manage active stock portfolios—which include our newsletter stock picks.
The monthly newsletter, weekly commentaries and periodic special reports form the base with which we communicate to our subscribers and wealth management clients. Our goal is to keep our followers on the path to financial success as we like the Lao Tzu quotation, “If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.”
Learning Center
Complementary Insights & Thought Leadership
More content is available on our Blog.
Special Reports
These subscriber-only reports provide in-depth research on specific investment opportunities, market sectors or timely financial topics that warrant additional attention beyond the newsletter’s coverage.
Please login at the top of this page to continue reading.
Essential Personal Finance Tools
Loan Calculators
Retirement Projection Tools
Budget Tracking Tools
Webinars & Presentations
Webinars & Presentations
The Prudent Speculator’s Premium Webinar Series:
The Prudent Speculator’s Complementary Webinar Series:
Wealth Management
A refreshingly personal approach to private wealth management
Partner with our experienced team of wealth advisors, investment research analysts and financial planners today.
Learn what we can do for you.
We provide high net worth individuals, institutions and financial professionals with asset management and advisory strategies. Provide a few details in this form and we’ll reach out to you shortly. Our comprehensive Private Client Services include:
We implement our respected value stock investing strategies with a focus on The Prudent Speculator’s core tenets of Patience, Diversification and Selection.
We work with you to develop target allocations that include all your investments, not just those managed by our team.
You define your retirement goals. Together, we create a custom plan that helps you reach them.
We understand the value of your legacy. Our team will analyze your current estate plans and propose enhancements that best suit your financial vision.
Smart financial planning is more than investment strategy. Together, we’ll assess your insurance needs and ensure you carry sufficient coverage.
Our comprehensive financial planning capabilities are extensive and touch on a wide range of areas, dependent on client-specific needs.
We manage our investment portfolios in-house and provide customized solutions that align you with your goals.
You may wish to enhance your legacy through philanthropy and charitable giving. Our team of advisors can help you maximize the impact of your gifts.
Working alongside your personal tax professional, our team will help analyze your savings opportunities and provide the clearest picture of how taxes may impact your financial future.
Our clients have access to a selection of proprietary investment offerings, which can be complementary to your existing investments and can improve diversification.
Schedule a free consultation today and start investing with confidence
John has more than 30 years of investment management experience and serves as Editor of The Prudent Speculator, which has been a trusted newsletter for over 45 years. He chairs the Value division’s Investment Committee, leading a team that performs comprehensive investment research and financial market analysis. You may recognize John from his contributions to Barron’s, The Wall Street Journal and Forbes, as well as frequent interviews on CNBC, Bloomberg and Fox Business News.
Jason is responsible for performing in-depth microeconomic research and fundamental analysis of individual stocks and industries. In addition, he works directly with clients to provide customized account management. After serving in the United States Navy, Jason earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in finance, summa cum laude, from the University of West Florida. Jason is a CFA charterholder and a member of the CFA Society of Orange County.
Chris joined AFAM Capital in August of 2011 and Kovitz in 2018, as part of the Kovitz acquisition of AFAM. As a member of the investment team, Chris conducts fundamental research and analysis. He is responsible for identifying new investment opportunities and maintains company, industry, and macroeconomic models. Chris earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Southern California. Chris is a CFA charterholder and a member of the CFA Society of Orange County.
Zack joined Kovitz in 2019, where he performs fundamental research for the firm’s equity strategies and works with clients to provide customized account management. He also contributes to the firm’s Market Commentary and Newsletter content. Prior to joining the firm, Zack was an analyst with a regional trust company and an independent wealth management practice. He is a veteran of the United States Navy with a Bachelor of Science in Ag Business Management from North Carolina State University and passed the Level I exam in the CFA Program.
Phil joined Kovitz in 2020 as a Business Development Analyst. Phil is responsible for the administration and execution of various tasks related to The Prudent Speculator, a Kovitz owned subscription-based newsletter. In addition, Phil is charged with analyzing and distributing content and various reports to key stakeholders. He is a graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he studied economics.
Alyssa joined Kovitz in 2024 as a Wealth Management Associate. In this role, Alyssa is responsible for supporting the lead advisors of the Orange County team by executing a broad range of technical, client management, and client service support tasks, while also contributes to The Prudent Speculator in the area of Wealth Management. Before joining Kovitz, Alyssa earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from San Diego State University. She then gained valuable experience at Edward Jones, where she honed her skills in finance and client management. Outside of the office, Alyssa enjoys cooking, exercising, and spending time with friends and family.
Michelle joined Kovitz in 2020 and brings with her over 23 years in the investment industry, having previously worked at Bel Air Investments, UBS, and Morgan Stanley. Michelle is responsible for overseeing the maintenance of client accounts alongside our operational support team. In addition, Michelle oversees the delivery of important client communications. When not in the office, Michelle enjoys exploring what California has to offer.
Our Unique Approach
Value Strategy
We have never wavered in our commitment to the time-tested value investing methodology we’ve implemented for 45+ years, with extensive experience on the investment team dating back to 1987.Hands-On + Personal
Your advisor is a voting member of the investment team. This differentiates us from other firms, as our portfolio management decisions never get lost down the chain of command.Advising with Integrity
We invest right alongside our clients. Each member of the investment team has the lion’s share of their personal net worth in the same strategies we implement for clients. We happily eat our own cooking.
Access our most popular Wealth Management resources.
Search
Search Our Archives
Important Search Pointers: Because we index data back to 1977, ticker-based searches can be challenging. It is likely more fruitful to search for “Walt Disney” or “Disney” instead of ticker “DIS”.
The default search will consider all words in your query. Wilson Foods will yield all results with Wilson and all results with Foods. Adding quotation marks will require a specific string for enhanced precision, such as “Wilson Foods”.
Click the Search button when you have entered your query.
Please ensure you are logged to use the search tool.