Phil Town

IS GARMIN YUMMMMY? (PART II)

My look at Garmin started with whether I wanted to own it, whether I understood it and whether it had moat.  So far so good.  Next I want to look at management, Value and Yield:

M: Management. Which means Dr. Min Kao, Founder, Chairman and CEO.  Here's the summary I got from articles about him that I got when I googled "Min Kao" Garmin.

1. Dr. Min Kao's BAG:  (I want to hook up with guys who want to change the world and have really committed themselves to it.  I call that a Big Audacious Goal - BAG):  “To bring GPS to the masses”.  Nice.
2. How does he intend to do that BAG?  He says he intends to make the best product, at the lowest cost to build,  and to do that he is going to go for vertical integration. 
3. What kind of guy is Dr. Kao?  He seems like he’s all about this company.  No indication otherwise.

I like the sound of this guy.  He seems like a guy I'd like working for me.  Management gets an A.

IS GARMIN YUMMMMY?

Hi Phil,

I saw you write back to Christine on the blog about practicing and sending you the results to see if we are getting it or not.  Well, here’s one.

Garmin Ltd. (GRMN)

This place is a few miles from my home and I love their products.  I’m a gadget geek and GPS is usually involved somewhere.  Garmin makes a variety of GPS related products for the consumer, commercial and government markets.  With GPS devices showing up in cell phones, PDA’s, cars and probably a refrigerator somewhere, I think the market is just getting started. Garmin has a few competitors, but there seems to be enough business to go around.

WHAT NOW FOR WHOLE FOODS?

I popped into Whole Foods last February at 90.  And as a Rule #1 investor getting into WFMI meant that I thought it was YUMMMMY.  Turned out it was!  Since then WFMI ran up to 104 and I bailed at 102.  Then again in at 97 and now its at 120.  That is some serious up.  About 40% in 5 months.  Good.   But here is where it gets real good.  That investment represented about 40% of my portfolio.  That means that my entire portfolio went up 16% in 5 months even if the rest of it was under my mattress.  That is just nuts! And it's all about focus.  If you think you can do that by diversifying, think again.  Remember this:  Diversification is for the ignorant.

THIS BUD'S FOR ME?

Warren Buffett just bought a bunch of Budweiser, so I thought I’d write about how I look at it. So I’ll put BUD through the YUMMMMY hoop and see what we come up with.

Do we want to own it all?  Legendary company and I drink Bud and Corona, which they own half of.  So yes.

Do we understand the business?  They sell beer.  Yeah, I get it.

SAFETY NET NATION

BusinessWeek recently pointed out that the major stumbling block in the President's attempt to privatize a part of Social Security is that Americans across the political spectrum are afraid to take responsibility for investing their own money. They want the government to keep its guarantees in place ... even if the rate of return on Social Security is only 2%.

Advice from J.D. Mullane's Old Man: Compound Interest

I always feel like such a pathetic speaker when a good writer decides to rip me after an appearance!  J.D. Mullane, writing for a Philadelphia paper, wasn’t exactly overly impressed with me.  So, by way of apology, I wrote this to him :