Professor Glen Arnold

We can all learn a great deal from the principles and the experiences of people who turned out to be terrific investors. The gems of insight they offer us can make the difference between our investment choices being mediocre or being exceptional.  John Templeton was one of the best, outperforming over a seven-decade career. His […]

I’ve sold my shares in Covent Garden owner, Capital and Counties (LSE:CAPC), at £1.743, after a 69% rise in just ten months. They were bought in the pit of the winter wave of Covid-19 in the belief that life would return to normal eventually in central London, tourists would return and offices would fill up […]

Town Centre Securities (LSE:TOWN) was founded by 32 year-old Arnold Ziff in 1959, and it floated on the London market in 1960. A Leeds man, born and bred he had inherited the Stylo shoe business from his father.  He knew the city intimately which must have been a great help when it came to ideas […]

Many companies showing low share prices relative to net current assets and/or earnings are financially distressed and will continue to perform badly. Thus, it is important to avoid including those displaying the biggest problems. Joseph Piotroski established some variables useful for considering the likelihood of financial distress. I’ll conduct a Piotroski analysis on both Town Centre […]

The principle reason for buying shares (at 142.6p, MCap £75.5m) in Town Centre Securities (LSE:TOWN) is that they are selling at half net current asset value, even after adjusting downwards values of retail and leisure property assets – see earlier newsletters.  But TOWN also looks very good from the perspective of a deep value investor […]

Town Centre Securities (LSE:TOWN) is selling at half price relative to net current asset value – see earlier newsletter. Its shares have been driven down by perceived  vulnerability to devaluations because of its high exposure to the high street. So, before I bought its shares at £1.426 (market capitalisation £75.5m) I checked out the quality […]

One of the most shunned sectors of the stock market right now is property companies renting out to retailers. This made the sector the place to look for long-term bargains as Mr Market indiscriminately rejected anything to do with the high street. Mr Market is right to reject many property firms on the grounds of […]

Highcroft Investments (LSE:HCFT), whose shares I bought recently at £8.75, has simple business model. So simple that it only requires six and half employees to run the £45m company.  It buys and holds commercial buildings, mostly warehouses and retail warehouse, and rents them out. It occasionally sells a unit, usually when the property no longer […]

Financial distress investigation using Piotroski factor analysis Joseph Piotroski published a landmark academic paper in 2000 showing that nine accounting variables can be used to give an edge in investing in value shares because they allow a sifting out of those shares with high probability of trouble, and those which, while also having low share […]

Yesterday’s newsletter explained that Highcroft’s (LSE:HCFT) net current asset value is 25% above its current market price. This was one factor prompting me to buy its shares at £8.75 (market capitalisation £45m).   Today I look at another enticing feature of the company: it’s solid earnings and dividends flow to shareholders over the past decade. This […]