17 April 2024
Elston Quarterly Portfolio Update Q2 2024
In this video, Portfolio Manager David Seager provides his perspective on the key questions discussed in the recent quarterly asset allocation meeting. Read more
8th November 2023 - Asset Management
This article was originally published on LivewireMarkets.com on November 1st, 2023
Investing in what you know can pay off handsomely.
Whether you work in a certain industry and have the inside running, love a brand and what it stands for, or regularly use particular products, such in-depth and often intimate knowledge can give you insights that more casual observers simply don’t have.
It’s a philosophy championed by many famous investors and last week I brought you the first instalment of a two-part series, in which we reached out to fund managers and asked them for the thesis on a stock that they both hold in their portfolios and also have some affinity with.
The global stock edition can be found by clicking the link below:
How your expertise can drive investment gains (and 2 stock ideas)
Today we bring you the local edition, focused on ASX-listed opportunities. Thanks to Hugh Giddy from IML and Bruce Williams from Elston for taking part.
We hold it in our large-cap portfolio. I am also personally selling a car at the moment.
It is an incredibly easy service to use in that when you place an ad, it provides you with a lot of tips in order to increase the probability of a sale. This includes price guides, how many photos you should include and of what, input to your “pitch”, and also comparable cars already listed.
Once your add is up and running you then receive weekly statistics such as how many appearances, views, and saved searches.
You soon get a good understanding as to the likelihood of selling your car.
If you do not have the time or inclination to sell the car privately, you can also make use of the relatively new Instant Offer product. This is where you put in details of your car and Carsales provides you with a guaranteed price from a local dealer. As long as you haven’t embellished the quality of your vehicle, the transaction can be carried out very quickly at prices that are probably better than trading in.
More important to Carsales are the services that they provide to dealers – it is absolutely essential, and Carsales dominates the market. Obviously, you have the classifieds business but Carsales also provides SaaS, valuations & appraisals, research & reporting, website development & hosting, and even photography. Dealer feedback we have received also highlights innovation as a real strong suit – whether it be existing products or developing new ones.
It is worth noting that they also have operations in South Korea, Brazil, Chile, and the United States, where we think the Trader Interactive business will be a real driver of growth in the future.
As far as knowing their customer and looking after them, they don’t get much better than Carsales.
It’s hard to find a business where this is such a big part of the culture, but easy to see why they will continue to do well into the future – hence why we own them.
Good for customers, good for shareholders: Metcash
I’ve followed Metcash for decades. The company, then “Davids”, was the main wholesaler to independent food and liquor stores in Australia. Numerous stores used the wholesale services under different banners, with little uniformity or consistency in stores.
Renamed Metcash, new management consolidated retail brands. The main IGA grocery brand was tiered to reflect supermarkets, smaller stores and the convenience Express stores. Retailer standards were implemented, allowing for more supplier support, promotional calendars, effective catalogues, and more appealing stores. Data collection now facilitates customer insights. Refurbishing stores leads to a significant sales uplift. As customers visited their local IGA during COVID after an absence, they were impressed not only by better stores, they also noticed the wide range and price matching on key items.
Personally, I enjoy the experience, the better range and convenience of the IGA store.
Liquor followed a similar playbook with the consolidation of brands into Cellarbrations, the Bottle-O and IGA liquor. The liquor division is consistently profitable and has shown steady growth over the past decade. It’s second to Endeavour (Dan Murphys and BWS).
More recently, Metcash set up a hardware pillar, now second to Bunnings, consisting of Mitre 10, Home Hardware, and Total Tools. Hardware has grown rapidly under their leadership to be the largest division. I shop at Mitre 10 often as I tend to get better service than Bunnings.
The quality of the business has been transformed.
The customer experience is good, as are the business economics.
Yet the market still treats it as lacking structural growth. With a 12x PE and 6% yield, the discount to peers such as Woolworths, Bunnings and Endeavour is much larger than justified by the buying power differences of being the largest player.
If you would like more information, please call 1300 ELSTON or contact us.
17 April 2024
In this video, Portfolio Manager David Seager provides his perspective on the key questions discussed in the recent quarterly asset allocation meeting. Read more
10 April 2024
Elston Portfolio Manager Gary Merkel has picked three constituents of the ASX Small Ordinaries Index in the latest Livewire article. Read more
25 March 2024
Just before Easter, Livewire asked four fundies to pick which businesses they thought had the hop on some of the others in their investment universe. Read more
18 March 2024
Following on from the reporting season, Co-Founder and Portfolio Manager Bruce Williams has provided a brief overview of the recent results and what that indicates for the portfolio positioning. Read more
31 January 2024
The Australian Financial Review has recently named Elston Australian Emerging Leaders in their top performers 2023. Read the article to find out more. Read more
18 January 2024
In this video, Portfolio Manager Leon de Wet provides his perspective on the key questions discussed in the recent quarterly asset allocation meeting. Read more
1 December 2023
HUB24 announced the launch of a new whitepaper, ‘Directing the matrix: meeting the advice needs of high net worth clients’. Read now to get insights from Elston Head of Philanthropic Services Susan Chenoweth and many other experienced advisers. Read more
8 November 2023
Investing in what you are passionate about, or even what you consume everyday, can give you an edge. Find out what local stock Elston Co-Founder Bruce Williams has in mind. Read more
13 October 2023
What should advisers think about as they move to managed portfolios? Elston Head of Adviser Services Mark Smith shared his views on how to successfully make the transition. Read more
4 October 2023
We all know Australia is the lucky country, but could it soon be the luckiest? Elston Co-founder Andrew McKie believes it may be possible, and advisers need to take heed. Read more
21 September 2023
Andrew McKie joined 5 other industry leaders at LiveWire Live 2023 as they presented their shocking prediction for the future. What did he predict? And is it good news or bad news? Read more
14 September 2023
Portfolio Manager Leon de Wet has provided a brief overview of the recent reporting season results and what that indicates for future earnings and the portfolio positioning. Read more
25 August 2023
Are our two big supermarkets worth checking out? Read the latest Livewire Markets article to see what Elston Co-Founder and Portfolio Manager Bruce Williams thinks. Read more
12 August 2023
Should investors buy AMP or bypass it? See what Elston co-founder and portfolio manager Andrew McKie thinks and find out how he’s feeling about the ASX100 in general. Read more
1 August 2023
In this video, Portfolio Manager Leon de Wet provides his perspective on the key questions discussed in the recent quarterly asset allocation meeting. Read more
31 July 2023
What makes Carsales such an attractive stock? Elston Portfolio Manager Bruce Williams examines the key drivers that are working for this digital marketplace both here and overseas. Read more
26 July 2023
Last year, some bond indices fell into a black hole. Are good returns from fixed income investing still a galaxy far, far away? Or are there brighter days on the horizon? Read more
23 July 2023
In the latest Livewire's edition of Buy Hold Sell, Andrew McKie talked about which ASX-listed stocks he would want to own (or not own) in a Goldilocks scenario. Read more
20 July 2023
Elston Co-Founder Andrew McKie sat down with Han Lee from Livewire and Rob Crookston from WILSONS to discuss how they find “quality” companies on the ASX. Read more
15 July 2023
Andrew McKie was asked to analyse three stocks that are widely perceived to have those rock-solid qualities and assess whether they have become overcrowded, and name one quality company in the recent Livewire interview. Read more
12 July 2023
If you had a spare $10,000, how would you invest it? It's an interesting hypothetical and one that Elston Portfolio Manager Leon De Wet was happy to answer for Livewrire. Read the article to see his picks. Read more