Dear Warren: If You Think Coke Is A Good Investment . . . (An Open Letter to WB)

[flixil]

Hello,

 

I'm in the middle of "Investment Valuation - 2nd Edition" of Damodaran, and while reading the book webpage http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/Inv2ed.htm

I came accross with this letter from 1997 preaching the good characteristics of CSCO in terms of ROIC and EV/IC  (enterprise value / invested capital)

http://people.stern.nyu.edu/adamodar/pdfiles/eqnotes/Buffett.pdf

 

Does anyone here use EV/IC?

 

Where can I find a good website to plot the Total Shareholders Returns from both CSCO and KO from 1997 onwards?

 

What are your thoughs on this letter?

 

Thanks

[KCLarkin]

According to FastGraphs, the total returns (dividends NOT reinvested) since Jan 1, 1997 is:

 

CSCO - 7.3%

KO - 3.4%

[Picasso]

From 01/31/1997 to 09/12/2014:

 

CSCO: 7.42% dividends reinvested, 6.91% without dividends reinvested

KO: 4.36% dividends reinvested, 2.06% without dividends reinvested

[EliG]

http://longrundata.com/

 

Enter Jan 2, 1997 as the start date. It barfs at Jan 1.

[west]

Does anyone here use EV/IC?

 

EV/IC is pretty awesome imho, but it takes a lot of work to get to the right value for it.

 

What are your thoughs on this letter?

 

I thought it was a misleading title that was created to get people to read it.  (In terms of the internet: "click bait".)

 

A decent read though, and not difficult to get through.

 

Good luck with the Damodaran stuff.  If you're interested, he also publishes his classes online and through iTunes.  You can get his 2014 Spring class webcasts from here:

 

http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/webcasteqspr14.htm

 

He just started the fall 2014 session.  I think you might be able to join in online if you're really dedicated to it.