About

Firm Returns is an investment research newsletter with a focus on value. Subscribe to receive detailed analysis on a selection of listed companies.

About the author

I am but a humble private investor and this newsletter is a part-time endeavour which I fit around my day job as the Tech Lead of a small telecoms company.

I invest globally, but being UK-based, you might find that I have somewhat of a bias towards companies listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). This has as much to do with the disproportionately high concentration of cheap companies listed here, as it does other factors such as access and familiarity.

With regard to company size, I’m entirely agnostic and own shares in companies with market capitalisations ranging from $100m to $40bn. I tend to have a weighting towards the smaller end (<$1bn) as this is where I’ve found the most opportunities, but I’ll consider larger market caps without prejudice.

My personal hurdle rate, or cost of capital, is 15%, so everything in my portfolio has an expected annual return in excess of this figure.

This portfolio is also relatively concentrated, with between 5-10 positions - a number determined by my management capacity, as I follow each company closely and re-underwrite the investment at least once a year.

Due to my value investing bent, I’m focused on opportunities that offer a good amount of downside protection and an asymmetric upside. This can take various forms, but is always a feature of the companies I own.

Stock analysis

I have a growing library of write-ups that condense somewhere in the region of 80-100 hours of work into a 15-20 min read, designed to give you an in-depth overview of the company and the potential investment case.

A number of these write-ups have been very well received, attracting thousands of views, including in at least one instance, the CEO of the company.

The write-ups serve as both a learning tool for me, and part of my due diligence process when considering potential new investment opportunities.

You can find the complete archive of write-ups on the stock analysis page.

Portfolio updates

I publish my portfolio holdings quarterly, and additionally send out notifications whenever I buy or sell a position.

As I continue to monitor my holdings, I put out shorter company updates - supplementary to the longer write-ups - that cover recent business developments and results.

The company and portfolio updates are both available on the portfolio updates page.

Frequency

While I’ll endeavour to produce new content as frequently as possible, I can’t promise it will follow a regular schedule. I’m only doing this part-time and have to balance my available time between monitoring my existing holdings and analysing new companies.

Disclaimer

What I've described is my personal investing approach, which is specific to my circumstances and temperament. This may not be appropriate for you and is in no way intended as individual advice. The newsletter and website are for information purposes only and anyone following my recommendations should do their own due diligence. While every effort has been made to ensure the information contained is accurate, this cannot be guaranteed.