In terms of finance and investing Philip Fisher’s reputation precedes him. This book was originally published in the late 50’s but remains a must-read for every investor – it’s worth noting the book has been brought up to date since it was first published.
You could say the author is biased towards growth investing. However, the ideas he puts forward in terms of what to look for in a company are worth reading – Fisher aims to provide the necessary tools for investors to succeed, going as far as providing bullet point lists of desirable company attributes.
It’s fair to say that Fisher focuses more on qualitative than quantitative analysis – at Cadence we believe a combination of the two is necessary – however, his suggestions in terms of qualitative data to look at when evaluating companies is something we’ve talked about before.
Fisher encourages investors to evaluate the strength of a company’s management, its sales team, HR reputation and process, their R&D track record… At Cadence we value both qualitative and quantitative analysis, and this book is definitely worth reading for investors interested in exploring the principles of using qualitative analysis to value companies.