The Contrarian Series: The Stahl Report, The Contrarian Research Report & The European Contrarian Report
Since 1994, The Stahl Report, The Contrarian Research Report and the European Contrarian have employed a value-oriented investment strategy based upon the unique investment philosophy of Murray Stahl. The research process begins by identifying depressed and out-of-favor companies that possess certain "predictive attributes" such as long product lifecycles, owner-operator management teams, dormant assets, or a potential/ongoing restructuring. Firms of this nature are evaluated through the framework of the "Equity Yield Curve", a central investment idea created by Murray that explains the market’s tendency to heavily discount corporate events occurring beyond the typical short-term investment horizon adhered to by most investors. This subset of companies is then moved through a detailed quantitative and fundamental assessment before being published as detailed investment recommendations.
These services also uncover equities which due to liquidity characteristics or industry categorization, have not benefitted from the influx of assets into passive investment vehicles such as exchange traded funds. The rise of passive investments and the resulting "industrialization of investing" continues to distort asset prices and valuations across financial markets, and these services seek to capitalize upon the unique opportunities arising from this environment.
For the past few years, Murray has written extensively on two forces driving an extended inflationary cycle – interest rates and energy prices, while focusing his team’s research on companies that are not only attractively priced on a fundamental basis, but also positioned to rapidly grow revenue and expand margins as interest rates, labor costs and commodity prices remain elevated.
Each service publishes 8-10 comprehensive investment recommendations per year and includes the respective Compendium report, which is published monthly.
This service focuses on deeply undervalued U.S.-listed small and mid-capitalization stocks with asymmetric risk/reward profiles
Since inception in 1999, The Devil’s Advocate Report has sought to identify short sale ideas through the exploration of structural themes and wide-spread investor misperception. The “logical absurdities” that had characterized the investing environment in the later years of the Internet Bubble provided fertile ground for the launch of The Devil’s Advocate Report. Although the current investing climate may not be characterized by triple-digit earnings multiples on unprofitable companies, equally compelling valuation discrepancies and profound structural changes in equity markets are presenting an abundance of opportunities for the short seller. Each publication of the Devil’s Advocate Compendium provides regular commentary from Murray Stahl regarding industry-specific and market wide themes that are driving our short sale recommendations, as well as three to five short sale ideas. Many of these short sale ideas will be expounded upon into full length (15 - 25 page) research reports.
The Fixed Income Contrarian provides comprehensive investment recommendations on fixed-income securities with a focus on bonds issued by U.S. corporations. In the current low-interest rate environment, where the term "high-yield" has become somewhat of a misnomer, the service is aimed at identifying securities with relatively rich yields while avoiding unacceptably high credit risk. Recommendations often are based upon a contrarian view of company fundamentals where yields reflect investor misperception about balance sheet strength or the rate of balance sheet repair. The Fixed Income Contrarian Compendium provides commentary from Murray Stahl on the unprecedented pitfalls that high-yield investors now face, as well as the approaching risks for companies with a dependency on low-interest rates and yield-seeking investors.