Hersh Cohen - Value Investor

Here is a video of Hersh Cohen that is a part of Consuelo Mac's excellent Wealthtrack series. This video, which I watched a little while ago, is the first time that I came across Hersh. Hersh has an investment attitude that I really like:

"Not one of my companies cut their dividend today."

Hersh invests for the long term and looks at todays problems in the context of history. We have obvious problems today but previously there have also been obvious problems. Hersh cites the oil crisis, Nixon's resignation, and the US being torn apart by the Vietnam war. The point being that yes there was a huge crisis but it is now history, it was survived and the market recovered and people became far more prosperous. This is a line of reasoning and a sentiment that I agree with.

The way that I, personally, differ slightly from Hersh is that I fear the big tectonic shifts of economic power in the world and a debt chris where the whole of the financial system is interlinked both in debt and by derivatives. My worry is that this time it might really be different. But yes, that said, is he right? Will the sun rise tomorrow? well yes, Will 1.6 billion servings of coke still be sold? I would guess so. Will this number grow in the future? Look at the shift in the tectonics, look at China and India. There is only one company in the world that makes Coke.

Hersh articulates something that I had thought of myself a few times that is that investing is a time arbitrage. It is a way of looking at investments that feels right.

I really like his interview.

The full list of Hersh Cohen's, stolen from here appears below. Enjoy!

“The One Investment...” First rate companies with great balances sheets and attractive dividend yields Stock Symbol Dividend Yield a/o 7/21/10 Abbot Labs (ABT) 3.5% AT&T (T) 6.7% (a/o 7/20) ExxonMobil (XOM) 2.9% Heinz (HNZ) 3.8% Home Depot (HD) 3.4% IBM (IBM) 1.8% (a/o 7/20) Intel (INTC) 2.8% (a/o 7/20) Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) 3.5% Kimberly-Clark Corporation (KMB) 4.0% McDonald’s (MCD) 3.1% Microsoft (MSFT) 2.1% Procter & Gamble (PG) 3.0% The Traveler’s Companies (TRV) 2.7% United Parcel Service (UPS) 3.1% Verizon (VZ) 7.2% Walmart (WMT) 2.3% 3M Company (MMM) 2.5%

Abbot Labs (ABT) 3.5%


AT&T (T) 6.7%


ExxonMobil (XOM) 2.9%


Heinz (HNZ) 3.8%


Home Depot (HD) 3.4%


IBM (IBM) 1.8%


Intel (INTC) 2.8%



Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) 3.5%


Kimberly-Clark Corporation (KMB) 4.0%


McDonald’s (MCD) 3.1%


Procter & Gamble (PG) 3.0%


The Traveler’s Companies (TRV) 2.7%


United Parcel Service (UPS) 3.1%


Verizon (VZ) 7.2%


Walmart (WMT) 2.3%


3M Company (MMM) 2.5%

Ron Hosen - Value Investor III

"If you want to understad the market pretend that the participants are on acid, speed, valium or some combination"

I am delighted to link to another series of videos posted by Ron Hosen. For reference Ron is an amateur value investor who historically managed to compound at 20% a year. In a new move, for me, I have stitched all the videos in this series into a play-list.