June featured my usual mix of Ask the analyst, Bookworm and Stock Showdown articles. Plus a few freestyle efforts to spice things up. Here are a few highlights from the month in case you missed them.

Bookworm

My Bookworm column shares insights from investing books that I found useful. Each falls under one of three investing principles that I try to live by: owning high quality assets, fostering a long-term mindset, and putting process over emotion.

In June, I explored ideas related to owning high quality assets and fostering a long-term mindset.

First up was an insight from Pat Dorsey’s Little Book That Creates Wealth. It concerned a common trap that investors seeking high quality companies fall into. The trap? Mistaking a hot product for a durable competitive advantage. See why here.

I then returned to the source of the very first Bookworm article: the writing of legendary fund manager Anthony Bolton. I did so because Bolton’s book Investing Against The Tide includes a short section on investing in potential buyout targets.

In a month with more ASX takeover action than usual, I tapped Bolton’s insights on identifying potential takeover targets, and considered whether it’s a promising way to approach the stock market.

Ask the analyst

Ask the analyst puts questions from Morningstar readers, as well as a few from myself, to our equity research team. If you have a question about an ASX company or industry in our coverage, please email to it [email protected].

Ned, a young investor from Queensland, did exactly that – and his question was a belter. Why, he asked, have the biggest players in certain Australian oligopolies been awarded moats by Morningstar while members of the same oligopolies have not?

To answer Ned’s question, I called on the help of our telecoms analyst Brian Han to explain why he thinks Telstra had a moat in the Australian mobile telephony market but TPG does not. We also looked at Woolies versus Coles. You can read it here.

Speaking of moats, ASX listed software firm Fineos continues to rank among the world’s cheapest Wide Moat rated firms relative to our estimate of Fair Value. This is partly because our analyst Shaun Ler recently hiked his Fair Value estimate quite considerably. I thought it was time for an overdue catch up on the company’s progress.

Finally, I hurled a few questions at our energy analyst Mark Taylor after it became clear that Santos may not be an ASX company for much longer. Take a look to see why a successful bid could bring a premature end to the story for long-term holders.

Stock showdown

My Stock Showdown column uses Morningstar research to weigh up the business and investment merits of different shares.

This time I took on what is probably the hottest story in Australian markets right now – the mind boggling relative valuation of CBA.

Deep value and the end of dollar dominance

I also wrote about a couple of things that stuck with me from Morningstar’s conference for advisers in Sydney last month.

An interesting stock pitch from Pzena Investment Management’s Caroline Cai led me to explore ‘deep value’ investing and whether this approach can work for individual stock pickers too. You can read that here.

Another key talking point from the conference was how expensive the US dollar looks relative to history, and what might happen if the greenback eventually weakens far more against the Aussie dollar.

As a Brit with most of my retirement savings denominated in sterling and lots of that portfolio invested in US shares, I have already seen the effect of a large US dollar drawdown this year.

Despite that, I’m not sure that investors with a long time horizon should fuss about FX moves too much. You can see why by reading the article here.

The personal front

Certain months from my life conjure up very specific images in my memory.

May 2024 is an endless Sydney rainstorm. December 2022 is our first Christmas on the beach. June 25, hot off the press, is a morning ferry ride in the perfect sun.

It really was a fantastic month. Made all the better by a 54-hole King’s Birthday weekend and, more importantly, living somewhere that still surprises us with something wonderful every weekend.

If I had to choose one highlight, it was probably this spot we came across in the Northern Beaches. Not a bad place to eat a bacon roll on a Sunday morning.

Looking forward

If it seems like I’ve got Australia and Sydney fever all over again, it’s probably because the prospect of leaving for a while has sharpened my focus. My brother is getting married and I’m flying home to Scotland for the first time in almost three years.

On the work front, you can expect more of the same. Keep an eye out for more Ask the analysts, Stock Showdowns and Bookworms. And, who knows, maybe even an article or two inspired by my trip home.

As always, thank you for reading. See you in July!

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