Palantir

bump

So I'm looking at a firm called Innophos (IPHS), they run both DB and DC plans. Since DC plans are not a liability, I focus on the DB plans. Their US DB plan is underfunded by 1.1B and the Canada DB plan is overfunded by 1.7B. So we get a net asset of 600M.... May I back that 600M out of the market cap to get EV the way you back out Cash? That's what I've been doing, but it's such a big number relative to market cap, makes me wonder.....

Sigh, value investors sound so weak when talking about macro. These guys claimed to avoid paying attention to macro and yet couldn't help writing this. ::)

I want to learn too. HOpefully I pass CFA and will now have time to do these things...

This makes me curious, does anybody have any thoughts on which products work on top of the OS layer? I keep thinking of the idea that the future great product is going to be the one that commoditizes it's complements (JoelOnSoftware), the only one I can think of is Google's search engine and Fbook...

Yeah, energy density of pure U235 wouldn't be a very useful metric as we only use lightly enriched U (I think about 20% most). So while he may get the science right, the way it's presented suggests propaganda....:) Thorium would be great as it's relatively common, but I hear solar is the future. :)

Congratulations. I'm not looking forward to my L3 results in Aug.

100% U235 or lowly enriched uranium for powerplants?

Does anyone here work in Biz Val? I'm considering an entry level position at such a place, and I'd like to get an idea about exit opps etc.... Any info is much appreciated.

I run a Hit List on Google Finance. I put down target prices in the notes. So far, tracking has not been hard, actually making the move when it falls to your price has been.

Nice, I've been reading his posts on Seeking Alpha, good to see...

Yes I am.

This talk of selling citizenship got me thinking. I think the US is interesting in the sense that it is less of a country and more of a corporation. Rather than built around the idea of an imagined community that shares ethnic, cultural, religious, or racial ties, like say Russia, Iran, or Israel, it's envisioned as a place where you can "achieve your dreams" which essentially results in it not having a national culture. Now the US used to be a nation of an "imagined community" prior to waves of immigration in the 1800s, but now that it has passed that stage, in a sense it is embracing the mercantilist notion of the nation by admitting illegal immigrants to form the lowest layer of its workforce. I'm not against immigration, I'm an immigrant of Indian origin myself, but I just can't grasp the fact that a large section of the media and country seems to think that US citizenship is some sort of inalienable right for illegal immigrants, who in my opinion have violated the laws of this nation by coming here. To me, it just smacks of sheer arrogance. But oh well....this isn't supposed to be political right?

Right, but IV always has a future value component...it is perpetual.

The number 7 is fixed. But how do you know that the Intrinsic value is fixed? Everybody will value cash flows differently. They will use different growth rate assumptions, different discount rates depending upon their risk calculations - always leading to a range of outcomes.

There are multiple possible IV's at this point in time, but only one final IV(s). But how can we assume that the IV is singular (as opposed to plural) and can be known? The way I see it, an investment can have multiple IV's depending upon the observer. I rate Kate Upton...but maybe Birdman and ValueInv do not...dependent upon the observer's utility function and its internal assumptions.

I would say intrinsic value, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder...

- Well what if it doesn't go out of business? If it does, sure you can put a liquidation value on it, but if you generalize it to all firms, it seems LV is just a subset. - Indeed, if it is makign money, surely it has to be worth something to somebody. But it is worth differently to different people, there's no single number, unless you're doing a weighted average. Just IMO. Maybe it is the sign of a top :).

I agree that there is earnings potential, but to me it seems fluid, and different depending upon who is evaluating. AKA I may think you have a great post MBA future, but maybe employers disagree with me. In a sense your IV depends on the people evaluating you (the market) rather than any intrinsic ability you may have. But we can reasonably estimate that it will increase. As a result I disagree with the notion that value is an intrinsic property or that it can be estimated/revealed.

Certainly, you become a more valuable asset, so estimated IV would increase.

But again, how do you know that time will reveal the outcome of IV and how do you know when you are at IV? Also...how do you know IV even exists? Serious question btw. The way I see it, IV is just an arbitrary construct of "this is what I think others would pay for it if they saw what I see". Value investors doing existentialism.

Well, how do you know there is even something called intrinsic value?

I think IV is just a mental shortcut for saying, "I think everyone else is willing to pay X for this if they truly realized its worth", which makes it an estimate and intrinsically subject to guesswork and opinions. IMHO that makes it too complicated for me so I just skip over the notion of IV, and say, If I own the firm and pay $X, what is my cash flow return? If it is above 10% given conservative assumptions it is a good potential investment. I think IV is great if you're looking at a firm as a collection of assets and you want to buy it at a discount, but for an operating company, I think there is a lot more handwaving involved.

Do you guys try to diversify between sectors? I find good opportunities in tech (ORCL), but I'm already like 40% in technology....

Saudi Aramco.