Musings on Markets

FEBRUARY 15, 2023

During the course of the year, investors also rediscovered that the essence of business is not growing revenues or adding users, but making profits from that growth. In this post, I will focus on trend lines in profitability at companies in 2022, with the intent of addressing multiple questions.

Profit and Loss 52

Profit and Loss Investments Hurdle Rate Accounting 52

Musings on Markets

AUGUST 19, 2024

Setting the Stage The notion of a business life cycle is neither new nor original, since versions of it have floated around in management circles for decades, but its applications in finance have been spotty, with some attempts to tie where a company is in the life cycle to its corporate governance and others to accounting ratios.

Corporate Finance 121

Corporate Finance Valuation Investments Finance 121

Musings on Markets

JANUARY 31, 2024

In my last three posts, I looked at the macro (equity risk premiums, default spreads, risk free rates) and micro (company risk measures) that feed into the expected returns we demand on investments, and argued that these expected returns become hurdle rates for businesses, in the form of costs of equity and capital.

Hurdle Rate 80

Hurdle Rate Profit and Loss Accounting Investments 80

Barry Ritholtz

FEBRUARY 21, 2023

BUCKLEY: They were all institutional separate accounts. And you know, just simple things like, hey, the value of tax loss harvesting, how do you make that apparent to people? BUCKLEY: Well, the way we’re built, being client owned, it’s the way we return profits to our clients. That means a low hurdle rate.

Leadership 111

Leadership Investments Profit and Loss Technology 111

Musings on Markets

FEBRUARY 10, 2021

What is a hurdle rate for a business? In this post, I will start by looking at the role that hurdle rates play in running a business, with the consequences of setting them too high or too low, and then look at the fundamentals that should cause hurdle rates to vary across companies. What is a hurdle rate?

Hurdle Rate 52

Hurdle Rate Currencies Investments Valuation 52

Musings on Markets

MARCH 8, 2023

The dividend principle, which is the focus of this post is built on a very simple principle, which is that if a company is unable to find investments that make returns that meet its hurdle rate thresholds, it should return cash back to the owners in that business.

Hurdle Rate 102

Hurdle Rate Corporate Finance Investments Finance 102

Musings on Markets

JANUARY 9, 2021

While the universe of companies is diverse, with approximately half of all firms from emerging markets, it is more concentrated in market capitalization, with the US accounting for 40% of global market capitalization at the start of the year.

Valuation 52

Valuation Currencies Numbers Corporate Finance 52