Professor Glen Arnold

I started telling the Borsheims of Omaha story last week.  Today I’ll describe how it grew to be a company with such a strong franchise that it  attracted Warren Buffett, who bought 80% of the shares in 1989. The first store was set up by Louis Borsheim in the frontier days of this Union Pacific […]

I’m going to draw some key lessons for today’s investors from the experience of Warren Buffett’s purchase of (most of) the shares in a jewelry retailer with only one shop.  The case study reinforces the point that to be a good investor you need first to be able to understand the drivers behind a business […]

In newsletters last week and yesterday I showed that Dewhurst (LSE:DWHA) has a stable profits history as well as a strong balance sheet. It has very experienced managers in the niche businesses where it operates, with some good pricing power due to the economic franchises it created over decades combined with shrewd acquisitions. I bought […]

Dewhurst (LSE:DWHA) has a lot of assets (and no debt) backing its 8.4m shares.  When viewing the key numbers below consider that the “A” shares (non-voting) are current trading at £6.50 – £7.50 (they’ve risen since I started posting about them last week – I recently bought at £5.64). Market capitalisation is £72.9m with the […]

Dewhurst (LSE:DWHA) has a number of niche manufacturing and distribution business with many displaying high market shares, strong reputations and long-standing relationships with customers and the agents of clients (e.g. architect specifying Dewhurst lift components for new high rise building). The UK and Europe businesses Dewhurst UK Manufacturing What it does: Pushbuttons, e.g. those in...

I’ve more than doubled my holding of Dewhurst “A” non-voting share (LSE:DWHA) (and to attend AGMs I’ve picked up a few shares with votes, LSE:DWHT).  The “A” shares averaged out at £5.64, quite a jump from the £3.18 paid in April 2014.  It was a bargain then, and because the company has advanced considerably since, […]

In the late 1980s Warren Buffett was in full educational mode: trying to help fellow investors avoid common errors; recounting cautionary tales at Berkshire’s AGMs; talking to MBA students;  TV appearances, and; through his annual letters to shareholders. One of the issues preying on his mind in 1989 was the mistake of rapidly changing the […]

In a 1984 speech Warren Buffett set out the performances of some of his fellow value investors – those strongly influenced by Benjamin Graham ( The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville, Warren Buffett’s speech at COLUMBIA BUSINESS School, May 17, 1984 https://www8.gsb.columbia.edu/articles/columbia-business/superinvestors). I’ve reproduced the second half of the speech below...

I think it worthwhile for all value investors to regularly re-read the transcript of a speech Warren Buffett made at Columbia Business School in May 17 1984 on the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Benjamin Graham and David Dodd’s book  Security Analysis. The speech argues that by intelligently and diligently focusing on the intrinsic value […]

In the 1980s Buffett was disturbed by the growing belief in the academic community, and by their Wall Street followers, that the equity market, through the buying and selling actions of thousands of informed investors, “correctly” priced shares.  This meant that investors are unable to systematically select undervalued shares and thereby out-perform the stock market. […]