Homeward bound: Joseph’s top insights in August
Joseph quizzed our analysts during ASX reporting season and wrote about everything from selecting funds to what Berkshire might buy next.
Welcome to my round-up for August. As you’ll see, it was an eventful month on all fronts.
Fund selection and Buffett’s elephant
I usually write about individual shares because that is how most of my own assets are invested. However, I really enjoyed reading our manager research team’s new report on how to evaluate new investment funds. You can read my five favourite insights from the report here.
Like many investors, I have also spent a lot of time reading about and trying to learn from Warren Buffett.
A hallmark of Buffett’s approach is that he beats his own path rather than letting external pressure shape his actions. As a result, I found it interesting that our analyst Gregory Warren thinks Berkshire Hathaway may have little choice but to make this big acquisition.
You can learn more about the company Berkshire may be forced to buy here.
Let’s move on to what I covered in my regular Ask the analyst, Stock Showdown, and Bookworm columns.
Ask the analyst
Ask the analyst puts questions from myself and Morningstar readers to our team of equity analysts. During August I caught up with our analysts Angus Hewitt and Shane Ponraj.
Angus answered my questions on whether Qantas is a value trap at recent levels. Then Shane answered some questions I had about CSL after its earnings report left markets with plenty to digest.
Stock Showdown
Stock Showdown uses Morningstar equity research to compare the business and investment merits of different companies.
This month, I pitted two ASX healthcare heavyweights against each other. The criteria? Three of the main things I look for in investments.
Go here to see how CSL and Resmed stack up on growth prospects, competitive position and valuation.
Bookworm
For reasons I’ll go into in a moment, August rang in the final two chapters of Bookworm.
The penultimate chapter explored the world of “100 baggers” – shares that have handed long-term holders a return on investment of over one hundred times. You can read it here.
In the final chapter, I wrapped things up with a deep dive on Bookworm’s three main investing principles – fostering a long-term mindset, owning high quality assets and putting process over emotion.
The personal front
In June my partner and I found out that we are expecting our first child. Seeing as we live roughly 17,000 kilometres from the rest of our family, this presented a dilemma. Eventually we chose to move back to Scotland where we’ll have more of a support network.
As a result, I flew back to Australia from the UK alone in July with the job of wrapping up our lives here.
On the plus side, this has meant a lot of time seeing friends and some of my favourite places one more time before I leave. I’ve also spent far too much time on Facebook Marketplace trying to sell everything we own.
One highlight stands out, though. Towards the end of the month my soccer team won 4-2 in our grand final. Playing sport in Australia (especially cricket) has been a childhood dream come true, so to finish with a championship win was special.
Looking forward
My time with Morningstar will come to an end in September. That makes this my last monthly round-up, but don’t worry. I still have a few articles in me yet.
My partner and I are excited for what comes next but there’s no getting around it - we will both miss Sydney and Australia terribly. I will also miss writing for you. I hope that you have enjoyed my articles and found them helpful on your investing journey. Thank you for reading!
