Thomas Kahn Quotes
101 Thomas Kahn Quotes
1 2 3
[In 2012 on checking out the daily stock losers and 52 week lows in the newspapers or on his computer.] Looking at the daily new lows and new highs informs you of market sentiment. It’s not a high-tech way of looking for ideas, but it’s one way of assessing the market that has worked for us for decades.
Thomas Kahn
[In 2012.] On the losers’ list, we often see stocks that have industry-specific issues that drive down share prices. In such cases, we quickly find out what’s wrong in the industry in question, analyze the companies therein, and differentiate between the good and the bad. As there is nothing wrong with holding cash, if we feel uncomfortable with a company, then we pass and move on. In general, we like to pay attention to companies that create concerns among investors because they are more likely to be underpriced assets.
Thomas Kahn
[In 2012 on the trouble with lay investors believing they are all experts.] It’s the same as today’s patients going to see a doctor. Before their appointment, they research their illness on the Internet and then advise the doctor on what medicine he or she should prescribe. Investing should not be like that. You need expertise and experience to look behind standard data and to uncover what others have failed to see.
Thomas Kahn
[In 2012 on Vox International (formerly Audiovox) receiving a NASDAQ delisting notice because it had failed to file its audited financial statements on time.] The headlines sounded terrible, but if you looked into the company’s earnings and financials, you could see that it was not at all affected by the delisting. If you knew why it was receiving the delisting notice, then you realized that you really had nothing to worry about. One point I would like to stress is that all the information we looked at was in the public domain. It wasn’t as if talking to management had given us the upper hand.
Thomas Kahn
[In 2012 on buying and even greater stake in Vox International during the GFC.] The stock was beaten down to $6, although it had a tangible book value of $12, earned 75 cents, and had a cash flow of $2 per share. That’s a value deal! Although we often tell our investors that our investment holding period is usually three to five years, when you find a value stock like that – where the company is doing everything right, its intrinsic value continues to improve, and its management is conservative and sophisticated – then our holding period can be much longer. After all, a stock represents a business, and we invest in businesses!
Thomas Kahn
[In 2012.] Instead of going all in, we like to buy a small position in a company, get to know it better over time, and then accumulate our position gradually. In the case of Voxx International, we eased into our position over the course of two to three years.
Thomas Kahn
[In 2012.] As long as we believe we know the situation, we are not afraid to average down on the prices of our stocks. As Ben [Graham] used to say, ‘You are neither right nor wrong because the crowd disagrees with you. You are right because your data and reasoning are right.’
Thomas Kahn
[In 2012.] One of the good things about investing is that there is no mandatory retirement age; you only get wiser as you get older. My father has gone through the best and worst of times in the stock market, and he has taught me to remain calm in both crises and frenzies. In fact, his presence also helps to calm our clients in times of uncertainty.
Thomas Kahn
[In 2012.] True managers need to be tested in multiple business cycles to prove that their compound annual return is consistent over long periods of time.
Thomas Kahn
[In 2012.] A consistent investment philosophy and strategy is essential. Of course, having good health, which allows you to remain in the game over the long run, is also important.
Thomas Kahn
[In 2012.] My father is now 106 and shows no signs of slowing down. He comes to the office to carry out research and talk to companies for about four hours a day, five days a week. Not bad at his age! Sometimes I will phone a company to chat with management, and they will tell me that my father beat me to it. My goal is to follow in his footsteps, and I too have no intention of retiring.
Thomas Kahn
[In 2012.] My father has read thousands of books and has a special interest in science. Because of his vast knowledge of the subject, he focuses on the future and rarely dwells on the past. He constantly looks forward to the technological breakthroughs and good things that will happen to mankind in the future.
Thomas Kahn
[In 2012.] The stock market is based on confidence. The hyperactive algorithmic traders, who use mathematical programs and technological tools to trade fleetingly in and out of the market to generate profits, not only create huge volatility in the market, but they also undermine the confidence of individual investors. They turn the stock market into a casino.
Thomas Kahn
[In 2012 n EFTs (Exchange-traded funds.)] In the beginning, they were fine, but as Wall Street traders tried to gain a foothold in the business, they created leveraged ETFs that allow market speculation. Because these EFTs constantly need to rebalance their positions, they create unnecessary swings for individual stocks. Now that stocks are rising and falling for the wrong reasons, no one knows what’s going on in the market anymore. The situation is very harmful for those who wish to invest in good companies for the long term.
Thomas Kahn
[In 2012.] Now that frequent trading is in fashion, and serious long-term investing has fallen out of favor, I am going against the crowd again. Although the excessive volatility in the market can harm our portfolio in the short term, as long as we are disciplined and patient, it also creates unique opportunities for us to buy stocks at even cheaper prices. As long as we remind ourselves of the importance of a margin of safety and owning out-of-favor, value-oriented companies for the long term, then our holdings will eventually become popular again.
Thomas Kahn
[In June 1983.] In general, we view the market as quite speculative now. We see a lot of the symptoms of the old speculation, with the new issue boom and electronics and medical stocks that are really worth a nickel going to ten. A lot of these symptoms bother us. We are basically cyclically conservative Graham and Dodd analysts. (With Alan Kahn)
Thomas Kahn
[In June 1983.] We like to sleep at night. And we feel comfortable sleeping at night with net nets.
Thomas Kahn
[In June 1983.] We do 18 hours a day reading. We do a lot of reading… (With Alan Kahn.)
Thomas Kahn
[In June 1983.] If you come and see our offices, they are piled high with annual reports and files and so forth. We study companies.
Thomas Kahn
[In May 1999 on some ‘Thrifts’ selling for as little as 65-70% of book value compared with an average S&L (Savings and Loan) which commands over 100% of book value.] I feel like a kid in a candy store. There are loads of cheap thrifts around. That allows us to be more discriminating.
Thomas Kahn
[In May 1999.] A lot of these thrift chiefs wouldn’t become CEOs outside the industry. They may be nice gentlemen and fine community citizens. They became CEOs because they stayed around long enough and didn’t tick anyone off. I want to see CEOs who are eager to make money.
Thomas Kahn
[In May 1999 on urging investors to stay away from the thrifts that have a mutual holding company structure because they tend to insulate management. With a mutual holding company, a thrift typically sells around 50% of its shares to the public and retains the other 50%, which is nominally owned by depositors.] I don’t like them because management is saying ‘I want to have my cake and eat it too.’ They want the benefits of public ownership without the responsibility.
Thomas Kahn
[In October 2002 on mistakes.] Most of our mistakes turn out to be dead-money investments, not lost-money investments.
Thomas Kahn
[In October 2002 on pharmaceutical stocks including BristolMyers Squibb and Merck.] We bought the drugs in 1993 when they were depressed by the Clinton health-care plan, and several of them yielded 5%. We’re nibbling again.
Thomas Kahn
[In September 2002 on Audiovox priced at 7 just half of it’s book value. A] Value investor’s Nokia.
Thomas Kahn
[In December 2003.] We like to buy drug stocks when they’re out of favor.
Thomas Kahn
[In December 2003.] There’s not a lot of compelling stuff out there.
Thomas Kahn
[In December 2003.] We like to walk on the shady side of the Street.
Thomas Kahn
[In February 2004.] Unlike most investors, who start with the income statement, we start with the balance sheet.
Thomas Kahn
[In October 2004 on buying companies that others in the market think are lousy.] We buy blemished fruit.
Thomas Kahn
[In August 2005 on Merck.] There are going to be many ups and downs over the next four or five years. But you don’t go from being the Queen of England to being a hooker overnight.
Thomas Kahn
[In December 2005 on
Irving Kahn.] My father continues to research ideas and talk to companies. One of the nice things about this business is that there’s no mandatory retirement age, and you allegedly get wiser as you get older. Sometimes I’ll talk to a company and they’ll tell me ‘Your father just called last week.’ Irving is a voracious reader. He reads several newspapers a day, plus numerous scientific journals. He’s a frustrated scientist.
Thomas Kahn
[In December 2005 on his father buying Payless leather shoes for $49 and then deciding the stock was cheap when J.C. Penny decided to sell it and he bought into it when the shares were at a small premium to it’s book value. (The share price has since doubled.)] He feels that, at $99, Rockports are too expensive.
Thomas Kahn
[In December 2005.] I would say that we’re modified Graham-and-Dodd investors.
Thomas Kahn
[In December 2005.] My dad says he doesn’t have time to read fiction. I remember as a kid he would come home with a briefcase full of annual reports. His business is his hobby. He doesn’t play golf or bridge, and he gave up tennis a while ago.
Thomas Kahn
[In August 2007.] Why should I buy Citigroup?
Thomas Kahn
[In September 2007 on IDT which trades just below its cash per share value.] It’s been a disappointment. Why aren’t directors and executives buying meaningful positions in the stock? It’s better to underpromise and overdeliver. So far, we’ve been patient and frustrated.
Thomas Kahn
[In July 2008 on Syms Corp.] A closet REIT.
Thomas Kahn
[In November 2008 on the lesson of the Yale model eg. Yale being bullish on private equity (and alternative asset investments) as recently as the summer of 2007 just before the bottom fell out of that market.] The charities have all these consultants, and they’ve been herding the buffalo in one direction, toward alternatives. The consultants say: Yale has alternatives. Harvard does. Look how well they’ve done. You’ve got to have 20% in hedge funds.
Thomas Kahn
[In August 2011 on his father Irving Kahn at 105 walking the 20 blocks to his office or taking the bus to his office until a few years ago.] For a 105 year old guy, it’s pretty remarkable. I get tired just thinking about it.
Thomas Kahn
1 2 3
Return from Thomas Kahn Quotes to Quoteswise.com