Our Approach to Value Investing

In today’s chaotic markets, last week’s news drives this week’s trends. Dizzying flows of information reveal countless investments that were inaccessible even a decade ago. And global markets are increasingly connected, bringing far-flung opportunities within reach. Yet despite the hype, the complexity and the scale, some things never change….

The Fundamentals

Trends, by definition, don’t endure. What’s new or exotic isn’t necessarily better. We help discerning investors look beyond the hype, to take a diligent, disciplined approach to building wealth.

Since the firm's inception in 1982, Leith Wheeler has offered investors a disciplined investment style that puts clients’ interests first. Our goal has always been to preserve clients' capital while offering superior investment growth, regardless of economic factors.

Our portfolios are managed with the conviction that performance can only be added by being different from the market. Our security selection is based on fundamental research with a strong “value” bias. We will not invest in a company unless we have a high level of conviction in its business model and management team. We take a long-term view with our investments and build meaningful position sizes in companies we admire and trust.

Experience has shown us that a company’s stock does not always reflect its real value. This has allowed us to take advantage of some excellent investment opportunities for our clients over time. We invest in stocks, bonds or other securities when our research indicates they are underpriced, this provides us with a margin of safety.

Purchasing securities that are under-valued does not mean our portfolios carry excessive risk. On the contrary, our portfolios tend to hold companies with solid balance sheets and quality management, which are trading at attractive prices. Companies can become undervalued when there is a lack of investor awareness, when an entire industry is out of favour, or when a company experiences a short-term difficulty we believe will be overcome.

We also maintain active relationships with the management of companies whose securities we own. Our dedication to upholding shareholders’ interests has earned us a reputation as shareholder advocates, while also helping our investments achieve performance targets.

As disciplined Value Investors, we strive to deliver long-term, sustainable growth for our clients.