Value Investing

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Definition: Value Investing


Value Investing

Quick Summary of Value Investing


Value investing involves strategy of selection of those stocks, which trade at values lower than their intrinsic ones. Value investors search for those stocks, which they believe has been undervalued by market. They perceive that stock markets overreact to both bad and good news. This leads to share price movements, which do not correctly reflect a company’s long-term prospects. Value investors tend to garner profit by purchasing stocks when their prices are deflated. A critical task of value investors is proper estimation of intrinsic value of a stock. Another related concept of importance for value investors is ‘margin of safety’. Put simply, this implies that an investor ought to purchase at a substantially large discount to make room for any subjective judgmental error regarding one’s estimation of value. Real challenge of a value investor lies in reconciliation of book value and market value.

Stocks selected by value investors are often traded at ‘discounts to book value’ or possess ‘low price-to-book ratios’ or trade at ‘tangible book value’ or display ‘low price-to-earning ratio’ or possess ‘high dividend yields’.

[Value investing owes its origin to investment and speculation ideas taught by David Dodd and Ben Graham in 1928 at Columbia Business School. In 1934 these authors brought out their ideas in published form as ‘Security Analysis’].



Video Guide For Value Investing




What is the dictionary definition of Value Investing?

Dictionary Definition


Value investing is an investment technique where one buys shares that are believed to be undervalued in hopes that the true (higher) value of the stock will be realized. Therefore, value investing requires more of a long-term outlook. Someone who believes the market overreacts to good and bad news, which can cause stocks to be traded at less than they’re worth, might be more prone to value investing. Those who engage in value investing get out when they think the market has corrected the price. To determine if a stock is undervalued, investors who opt for value investing typically look for low price-to-earnings ratios and low price-to-book values. Value investing is not as focused on technical analysis as it is on the stock’s fundamentals. This means that value investing examines the stock’s current market value and the company’s intrinsic value.


Full Definition of Value Investing


Value investing involves the strategy of selection of those stocks, which trade at values lower than their intrinsic ones. Value investors search for those stocks, which they believe has been undervalued by the market. They perceive that stock markets overreact to both bad and good news. This leads to share price movements, which do not correctly reflect a company’s long-term prospects. Value investors tend to garner profit by purchasing stocks when their prices are deflated. A critical task of value investors is the proper estimation of the intrinsic value of a stock. Another related concept of importance for value investors is ‘margin of safety’. Put simply, this implies that an investor ought to purchase at a substantially large discount to make room for any subjective judgmental error regarding one’s estimation of value. The real challenge of a value investor lies in the reconciliation of book value and market value.

Stocks selected by value investors are often traded at ‘discounts to book value’ or possess ‘low price-to-book ratios’ or trade at ‘tangible book value’ or display ‘low price-to-earnings ratio’ or possess ‘high dividend yields’.

[Value investing owes its origin to investment and speculation ideas taught by David Dodd and Ben Graham in 1928 at Columbia Business School. In 1934 these authors brought out their ideas in published form as ‘Security Analysis’].

Value Investing Tips

  • Some important value investing tips are mentioned below.
  • Price-earnings ratio ought to be in lower 10% of concerned sector
  • Payment’s should remain within 70% of a stock’s intrinsic price (per share)
  • A PEG value lower than unity (this is regarded as an indication of stock undervaluation) should ideally prevail
  • A value less than or equal to one for price to book ratio ought to be present
  • A value of debt to equity ratio lower than unity must prevail
  • Robust earnings growth over a fairly long time horizon (for instance around 8% earnings growth over a period of about 10 years) is ideal

Related Phrases


Intrinsic value
Margin of safety
Warren Buffett
Value trap
Inside Value


Value Investing FAQ's


What Is Value Investing?

Value investing is the practice of buying shares of companies for less than their intrinsic value.

Value investing looks for mis-priced securities — those stocks that are selling at a discount to their intrinsic value. Value investors assume that, over the long-term, a stock price will more or less reflect the intrinsic value of the company. A well worn analogy on this outlook, provided by “the father of value investing,” Benjamin Graham, is that of the stock market acting as a voting machine over the short-run, but a weighing machine over the long-run. Buying at a discount, therefore, provides the investor with a situation in which the stock price should go up.

Value investing is frequently contrasted with growth investing, the practice of buying securities whose stock price will rise on the basis of the company’s growth. But these distinctions are largely academic — growth investors don’t buy stocks thinking they’re overvalued, and value investors don’t buy stocks thinking the companies they represent won’t grow.

However, value investors insist on buying companies whose price represents a significant margin of safety relative to the intrinsic value — even if that means waiting to buy a great company until the price falls into the acceptable range. Value investors seldom find themselves investing alongside the crowd. If anything, value investors tend to invest against the headlines.

Some value investors (“deep value” investors) try to buy with margins of safety of 50% or more relative to intrinsic value. When the stock approaches its intrinsic value, they sell and repeat the process. Other value investors, most notably Warren Buffett, look for a significant margin of safety but are also willing to pay more for established companies with durable competitive advantages, aka economic moats. Their rationale is that, over the long term, those wide moats translate into compound market-beating returns.

In all of these cases, however, the value investor is 1) estimating the intrinsic value or a range of potential values of the company; 2) judging the stock price against the intrinsic value, not against recent price movements; 3) insisting with a margin of safety.


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Definition Sources


Definitions for Value Investing are sourced/syndicated and enhanced from:

  • A Dictionary of Economics (Oxford Quick Reference)
  • Oxford Dictionary Of Accounting
  • Oxford Dictionary Of Business & Management

This glossary post was last updated: 28th November, 2021 | 0 Views.