December 31, 2021 Quarterly Update
Poplar Forest’s portfolios are currently valued at one of the largest price-to-earnings discounts to the S&P 500 since we’ve been in business. In effect, the market is suggesting that the outlook for our companies is less attractive than it has ever been. We disagree. Our companies may be underdogs, but when we look out over the next 3-5 years, we believe that their fundamentals will more than beat the spread.
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September 30, 2021 Quarterly Update
With the economy getting back to normal more quickly than expected, the U.S. Federal Reserve will soon start the multi-year process of normalizing monetary policy. In the face of potentially rising interest rates, investor worries are growing: stocks look expensive, bond prices go down when yields rise, and cash earns nothing. But, there is a fourth option: value stocks.
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June 30, 2021 Quarterly Update
With growth stocks having reasserted themselves as interest rates trended lower during the second quarter, some naysayers are already predicting the end of this value cycle. I couldn’t disagree more. For one, I continue to believe that bond yields have separated from reality due to price manipulation on behalf of central banks at home and abroad.
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March 31, 2021 Quarterly Update
During these wild market swings, we’ve seen a marked change in the type of companies that investors favor. Former growth darlings are being sold to free up funds to purchase shares of economically-sensitive businesses. Investors want beneficiaries of economic reopening and reflation driven by vaccine deployment and continued fiscal and monetary stimulus. As a result, value stocks have begun to materially outperform growth stocks.
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