Thinking Outside The Style Box

One investing tenet says you should choose an investing style–value, growth and so on–and stay as faithful as possible to it. Marc Heilweil has had success taking a more flexible approach. Since its launch in 2000, his relatively small ($20 million in assets) fund, Marathon Value Portfolio, has averaged an annual 9% total return, versus 2% for the S&P 500.

“Our fund is hard to categorize,” says Heilweil, 59. “I will go where the best values are, whether it’s small-cap, large-cap, value, growth, international or domestic.” His top ten holdings illustrate the point; alongside value plays like Kimberly-Clark, you’ll find jazzier outfits like Maxim Integrated Products, a developer and manufacturer of analog semiconductors.

Still, Heilweil, a Yale Law School graduate and 28-year veteran of the investment business, keeps a few stock-picking ground rules. First, he’s a believer in Benjamin Graham’s concept of “margin of safety,” which suggests that you can cover your tail in the market by buying companies whose enterprise value (market capitalization less net debt) stands below their “intrinsic” value.

Full story at Forbes.com

The Best Analysts: 2006 Outlook

Last spring, we published our second annual rankings of Wall Street’s best brokerage analysts. Using data from our partners at StarMine, we named the ten analysts with the best track records in the prior calendar year in each of two areas: accuracy in earnings forecasts and quality of buy, hold and sell recommendations.

As part of our year-end Investment Guide, we checked in with a few honorees in both categories to get their big-picture thinking for 2006 and the stocks they deem attractive now. The ten individuals listed in the accompanying table hail from a diverse group of employers, ranging from financial powerhouses, like Citigroup and Bank of America, to smaller outfits, such as Ferris, Baker Watts.

Overall, the mood is bullish, although there are certainly pockets of caution. Matthew Snowling of Friedman, Billings, Ramsey, for example, says he’s wary of the prospects of big money managers in his investment-services coverage area, preferring instead online brokers, like E*Trade Financial. Ivy Zelman, who tracks home builders and makers of household durables for Credit Suisse First Boston, thinks a diversified company like Fortune Brands will be a best bet in a tough housing market.

Full story at Forbes.com

Tech’s Christmas Wish

Washington, D.C. – Way back in July, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced the creation of a new underling: assistant secretary for Cyber and Telecommunications Security. Tech industry reps are now eagerly awaiting the (supposedly imminent) appointment of a living, breathing person to fill that crucial job.

“Whether that person’s name is about to pop or whether the champagne is going to be kept on ice for a few more weeks, I don’t know,” says Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America, an organization representing the likes of Accenture, IBM, Electronic Data Systems and Symantec among others.

Full story at Forbes.com

Investing Green Without Seeing Red

Washington, D.C. – Fifteen years ago, Jeffrey Leonard and a partner pulled together $5 million to found a private equity outfit, the Global Environment Fund, devoted to making money off environmentally friendly technologies. “We thought we were going to invest in replacing the internal combustion engine or the incandescent lightbulb,” Leonard says.

At an investment conference here last month, Leonard showed just how far his thinking has evolved since 1990. To an audience of venture capitalists, company executives and government officials, the Global Environment Fund chief rattled off a few of his favorite deal-making areas: liquefied natural gas, clean diesel, nuclear power and clean coal. Hardly stuff to enthuse the average enviro.

Leonard says his remarks came with a measure of tongue-in-cheek but also a serious message on making venture bets in the “clean technology” category. “In this climate,” he warns, “you want to be damn careful about what kind of technology you’re going to invest in.”

Full story at Forbes.com