Donald Yacktman Quotes
110 Donald Yacktman Quotes
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[In March 2011.] It is pretty obvious Coke is going to be around 20 years from now. But if you ask me about computer companies, I don't know.
Donald Yacktman
[In March 2011.] We always like things when they are going down. What we are trying to do is project five or 10 years, and buy the best risk-adjusted forward returns, just like a bond buyer.
Donald Yacktman
[In March 2011.] It still boils down to what you buy and what you pay for it. You want the best long-term outlook: predictable cash flows over a long period of time.
Donald Yacktman
[In March 2011.] I think Rupert Murdoch is very visionary…
Donald Yacktman
[In March 2011.] I see this world as imperfect people helping other imperfect people move toward perfection, and I just want to be better in all aspects of my life…
Donald Yacktman
[In June 2012.] Our approach won't work every quarter or every year, but over 10 years it will.
Donald Yacktman
[In September 2013.] The most important aspect of analyzing management is how well they've invested cash in the past, not what they say they are going to do. Because we typically own companies generating a lot of free cash flow, we're in trouble if management doesn't allocate that cash wisely.
Donald Yacktman
[In October 2013.] The stock market is not cheap.
Donald Yacktman
[In October 2013 at the age of 72.] As the market goes up, our cash tends to build. Because we’re investing from the bottom down, the cash is a residual. That’s telling you how hard it is to find stocks to buy.
Donald Yacktman
[In October 2013.] Companies that tend to have high returns usually have low fixed assets and low cyclicality. You will rarely see things like airlines, automobiles or steel companies or, for that matter, banks in our holdings.
Donald Yacktman
[In October 2013.] By the end of 2008, we had all our money invested. I’d said, ‘If you can’t find bargains in this environment, there’s a disconnect.’ Then the market went down another 20%. In this business, you’re wrong almost all the time. It’s just a matter of degree, because nobody buys at the bottom or sells at the top.
Donald Yacktman
[In November 2013.] We just can't put the money under a mattress.
Donald Yacktman
[In November 2013.] Some people have asked us if we're as near the top as we were in 2007. The answer is no, we are not at those kinds of levels…
Donald Yacktman
[In November 2013.] We used up all of our cash before the end of 2008. We were so brilliant that the market went down another 20% after that.
Donald Yacktman
[In November 2013.] On a long-term basis, I would count on having inflation.
Donald Yacktman
[In November 2013.] In 2008, we ran out of cash, and then we were starting to sell things that had held up pretty well, because we could find other things that were so cheap.
Donald Yacktman
[In November 2013.] I'll mention one of my sons, Stephen… Stephen says that ‘When you buy a stock, you should always be happy if, when the stock goes down, you are willing to buy more. If you can't do that, then you probably own too much.’
Donald Yacktman
[In November 2013.] Another of my sons, Brian… he said, ‘Let let me see if I get this right, Dad. Basically, what you have said is that if you buy above-average businesses at below-average prices, on average it is going to work.’ So what you are trying to do is stack the odds in your favor.
Donald Yacktman
[In November 2013.] We are looking for businesses that have high returns on tangible assets…
Donald Yacktman
[In November 2013 on how to value a company.] Everything boils down to inputs. To get a value, you have to have a cost of capital, and you have to have projections of growth and all the rest to come up with those numbers. But by looking at forward rates of return and risk-adjusting them, it allows for more objectivity. You can say, ‘All right, this is only an 8% or 9% return. But here is where the 30-year U.S. Treasury bond is, and here is where historical returns have been on equities, and here is where other stocks are.’
Donald Yacktman
[In November 2013.] We are having a more difficult time finding bargains.
Donald Yacktman
I’m a very bottom-line oriented person, and look at results.
Donald Yacktman
[As a university student trying to decide what he wanted to do.] The perception of those around me was that investing in stocks didn’t really create anything useful for society. I disagree. An investment adviser is entrusted with people’s savings and can provide them with an opportunity to earn a fair return, thus preparing them for the future.
Donald Yacktman
Part of what intrigues me about this business is that we’re constantly learning about new opportunities.
Donald Yacktman
There are three essential ingredients one must have to be a success in this industry. I call them the three I’s: Integrity, Intelligence, and Intensity. A person either does or does not have them.
Donald Yacktman
There are few things people have a higher regard for in this life than their money.
Donald Yacktman
The problem I see in the investment business is there’s too much superficiality out there. A lot of people have this casino mentality. Instead of viewing what they own as little pieces of businesses, they view the stock market as a series of trends. They rely on chart patterns or are driven by momentum, instead of looking at the underlying companies.
Donald Yacktman
Sometimes the most intelligent thing a person can do is pause and just look out this window for maybe 30 minutes, think about what he’s going to do and make sure he’s focused on the right priorities. Too many people go through the day without taking time out for things like that.
Donald Yacktman
My objective is to buy shares of good businesses at relatively low prices and to execute this strategy regardless of where the market is.
Donald Yacktman
[In July 2002.] We are value-oriented…
Donald Yacktman
Bonus
[In May 2014.] My first lesson in buying stocks was that things can always get cheaper, and that lesson kind of stuck with me.
Stephen Yacktman
[In May 2014.] Ultimately the level of cash we hold is based on the individual investment opportunities and not the overall level of the market. With that said, it is much easier to find lots of good opportunities in cheaper markets.
Stephen Yacktman
[In May 2014.] We have always looked for a good business, run by good management, trading at a good purchase price.
Stephen Yacktman
[In May 2014 on the GFC and running out of cash to invest.] The philosophy of ‘buying a good business and holding it forever,’ became ‘buy a good business, and if there is something that’s a much better deal, sell it and go buy that instead.’
Stephen Yacktman
[In May 2014.] As investor sentiment changes, many of today’s hot technology stocks will become old tech 10 years from now, and they will likely go from very high multiples to low multiples.
Stephen Yacktman
[In May 2014.] We think our investment approach works over a full market cycle, and fits well for long-term investors who do not focus much on the short-term comparisons to a benchmark. We think risk management is important and that investors should focus on how a firm manages risk over time. Ultimately, how investment results are achieved is almost as important as what results are produced over time.
Stephen Yacktman
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