Michael Cook is the Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of SouthernSun Asset Management. In his over 30 years of experience as a research analyst and portfolio manager, Mr. Cook has developed a unique investment philosophy and process, which serves as the core of the firm’s U.S. and global equity strategies.
Throughout his career, he has been featured and quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and Bloomberg Markets magazine and has been a speaker on CNBC, Fox Business News and Bloomberg TV.
In this exclusive and extensive 3,747 word interview in the Wall Street Transcript, Mr. Cook describes the idiosyncratic stock valuation methodology that has fueled his firm’s success:
“I’m always a little bit nervous when people start talking about unique investment philosophies because I think we all are unique in some way, shape or form, but I do think our approach is unique. It seems probably more unique today than maybe it was when I began.
In a sense, the concentrated nature of our portfolio and our particular focus on small to midsize businesses in the public marketplace were always a bit of our uniqueness because that was not necessarily something that there was an enormous proliferation of when I originally started the firm.
Also, our dedication to on-the-ground research is a big differentiator in my opinion. Frankly, we’re a little bit more like a private equity firm that manages public equity.”
Some of the top stocks discussed in the interview are not obvious:
“A name that we haven’t talked about though is The Brink’s Company (NYSE:BCO). You probably know them as the armored car or the armored trucks that you’ve seen in the past, but they’re so much more than that today. They’re one of the largest providers of logistics and security services for the transport of both cash and valuables around the world.
One of the questions that we hear often is, “Why would a company that moves cash be valuable in a world where we’re basically going digital?” Well, interestingly enough, cash in circulation globally continues to grow and has grown about 6% a year for the past several years.
There’s still an enormous unbanked population in the world. The view that anything related to cash is basically a dying industry is the first assertion that needs to get knocked out when you think about a company like Brink’s.”
To get the full detail on this and many other top picks from Michael Cook, read the entire 3,747 word interview in the Wall Street Transcript.
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