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Member Portal

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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) at Kovitz. 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."

For up-to-the-minute insights, follow us on our social media channels.

Our Market Commentary section includes the latest edition for the week, as well as all historical versions for your reference.

This content includes broad economic and investment commentary, stock market insights, historical data and updates for a selection of stocks we currently hold (earnings updates, outlook changes and so forth).

Market Commentary

Monday, November 11, 2024

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Newsletter Portfolio Trades - Sold LEG & 10 Newsletter Portfolio Buys Election 2024 - Polls Wrong Again; Republican Sweep? 1,500-Point Pop - Post-Election Rally History Books - Stocks Have Preferred Democrats in Washington Trump 47 - Three-Day Winners & Losers Econ Outlook - ....

In the Stock Picks section, you will find our ten stock highlights (formerly “Portfolio Builder”) for the month.

The Prudent Speculator follows an approach to investing that focuses on broadly diversified investments in undervalued stocks for their long-term appreciation potential. Does that mean we build portfolios of 20 stocks…30…? More like 50 and up. We like stocks. And we like a lot of ‘em. We don’t rely nearly as much on “how many” as we do “in which,” but we tend to invest in far more names than most.

This expansive diversification, we find, potentially serves us well in two ways: we can further minimize the risk of individual stock ownership, while maximizing the likelihood of finding the truly big winners among the undervalued masses.

As for the “in which” part, readers should know we discriminate among potential investments primarily by their relative valuation metrics and our assessments of stock-specific risk. We buy only those stocks we find to be undervalued along several lines relative to their own trading history, those of their peers or that of the market in general. Our Target Prices incorporate a range of fundamental risks (e.g. credit, customer and competitive dynamic) that we believe the companies may face over our normal three-to-five-year investing time horizon.

Each month in this column, we highlight 10 stocks with which readers might populate their portfolios. The list is not selected based on performance, as the following methodological hierarchy is utilized: 1) First time recommendations 2) Stocks that are unowned or under-owned in one of our four newsletter portfolios 3) Companies that have not been highlighted in the prior five monthly editions of The Prudent Speculator 4) Editor’s choice. Note that we are in no way suggesting that these stocks replace those featured in prior months as we will always issue a Sales Alert should we choose to exit a position.

This Month's 10 Stock Picks

Full text for each stock is available by clicking below

Our Target Price section features a full list of current recommendations with up-to-date calculations of each stock’s fair value over our three-to-five year time horizon.

To formulate a Target Price, we consider classic value-oriented metrics (e.g. Price-to-Sales, Price-to-Book-Value and Price-to-Earnings ratios) as well as additional quantitative and qualitative factors. We frequently update our Target Price stock list and publish updates twice per month.

We offer our Target Price list below, inclusive of all The Prudent Speculator’s currently recommended stocks, accompanied by a series of useful individual company metrics such as Price to Sales, Dividend Yield and more. For definitions of these metrics, please visit our How-To Guide.

Download Target Prices

Last updated November 1, 2024

In the Buy and Sell Alerts section, you will find same-day transaction information from our Investment Team each time they decide to update positioning in one or more stocks in our portfolios.

Buy and Sell Alerts may feature trims or incremental additions, where we are not exiting an entire position or initiating a new one.

New additions are featured in the Portfolio Builder section of the monthly newsletter. We customarily wait two market days after the newsletter is published to transact in newsletter portfolios. Therefore, transaction details can be found in the Buy and Sell Alert section of the website or in the following Monday’s Market Commentary.

  • Sell Alerts also feature trims, where we are not exiting an entire position.
  • Buy Alerts also feature incremental additions, where we are not purchasing an entirely new position.
  • All new stock purchases are published in the monthly newsletter.
  • You may access historical sales in the Archives on the right of this page.

Latest Buy & Sell Alert

Sales Alert Friday, November 1, 2024 (Took our Lumps on LEG)

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 ....

Latest Premium Special Report

Thoughts on Stocks for the 2024 Election


Even keel: Emotions are running high with Election Day ’24 approaching, but those who can separate politics from investments generally have had the best returns.

Against the grain: With plenty of campaign promises that will not become policy, opportunities abound in individual stocks.

Good things come in smaller packages: Those worried about corporate tax hikes and tariffs might consider 20 of our favorite small- and mid-cap stocks.

In the Wealth Management section, we offer special content to support you on your journey to achieving your long-term financial goals, including portfolio management and retirement planning.

For more than three decades, we have been beholden to our clients alone, for whom we manage and advise on more than $7 billion in assets. We focus on long-term investment solutions, backed by our own stringent research, and we view financial planning and wealth management as active and ongoing processes. We are committed to keeping your goals, concerns and attitude about investing at the heart of your personalized plan. 

 

A Wealth of Knowledge

Click to view Wealth Management resources.

 

 

 


Did You Know?

We offer wealth management services through our Private Client program. Contact us via the form below for a complimentary consultation with our financial investment team to learn more.

Our Resources section includes helpful guides, links and additional content.

Search our archives using the tool below.

 

Search tip: Because we have 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".

Features

Meet your wealth management team

Each member of our team treats financial planning and wealth management as active processes, working with clients to identify and implement the decisions that suit their needs.

John Buckingham
John Buckingham
Principal, Portfolio Manager

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 Clark, CFA
Jason Clark, CFA
Principal, Portfolio Manager

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.

Christopher Quigley, CFA
Christopher Quigley, CFA
Senior Research Analyst

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 Tart
Zachary Tart
Portfolio and Research Associate

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 Edwards
Phil Edwards
Business Development Associate

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.

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