Company Research

Our research team provides investment analysis and recommendations on approximately 100 companies within 10 industries throughout the United States. Our coverage is not confined to a particular market capitalization range. Instead, we focus on quality growth companies with above-average, sustainable growth rates, without regard to size. However, given the fact that smaller capitalization companies by their nature are able to generate higher growth rates and higher long-term investment returns, our coverage tends to be centered in the $100 million to $10 billion range, with an average of about $5 billion.

To a large extent, our coverage is guided by our economic and market research, which gives us a macroeconomic perspective from which we can identify attractive industries and underlying themes for investment. These themes, such as the trend toward outsourcing and an aging population, can be found throughout our research and provide a substantial wind to our backs when investing. In addition to the advantage of theme investing, we also look for good companies that are under-followed or overlooked by Wall Street, thus providing an increased upside potential once the investment merits of the company are more fully recognized.

We take a straightforward approach in identifying companies for inclusion on our coverage list based on a fundamental research ethic. This ethic is simple: We look for companies with good products or services, in good markets, run by good people. However, finding and understanding these companies necessarily requires a hands-on approach. To that end, we are committed to getting out in the field by making frequent on-site visits, talking to suppliers, customers and competitors, pouring over company and industry documentation, and communicating regularly with management.

Good companies share many of the same characteristics. These include: strong management, above-average profitability and growth, leadership in a market niche, unique, proprietary products or services, financial strength, acquisition skills, consistent results, and an aggressive commitment to new product development. We look for companies that possess as many of these characteristics as possible. Once we find these companies, we make a long-term research commitment to be the definitive, independent source of knowledge about that company.