Market Insights

Management Access: A Surprising Bright Spot for Investors During Pandemic

As we discussed in an earlier blog post (see here) we place a high premium on direct contact with management while researching potential investments, and also as part of our ongoing work on current holdings. This was the case in a pre-pandemic world, and remains the case today, despite the...

How Could an Unprecedented Hurricane Season Affect Insurance Stocks?

As we move firmly into hurricane season, the number of storm systems heading toward (or already making contact with) the eastern United States is already breaking records.

As the Washington Post reports, this week there were seven systems working their way across the Atlantic Ocean. This...

Update on Inflation and U.S. Interest Rate Policy

On Thursday, August 27, 2020, Federal Reserve (Fed) Chairman Jerome Powell spoke at the highly anticipated virtual version of the Fed’s annual Jackson Hole conference. In providing an update on inflation, Mr. Powell took a majorly dovish tone and reiterated the Fed’s desire for 2% inflation,...

Meet the Team | Steve Labbe, CFA

We believe the best partnerships are built upon strong relationships between people. In order for you to get to know us better, here’s the newest addition to our “Meet the Team” blog series.

Meet Steve Labbe, Portfolio Manager and Analyst at Prospector Partners. Mr. Labbe has been with the firm...

Playing the Recession Playbook in Defense, Part 2

Last week, we discussed how we have been active investors in the defense industry for years. There are a number of aspects we find attractive in the industry:

• Solid free cash flow yields
• Strong growth since the 2015 budget trough following the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and the Budget Control...

Playing the Recession Playbook in Defense, Part 1

We have been active investors in the defense industry for a number of years. There are a number of aspects we find attractive in the industry:

• Solid free cash flow yields
• Strong growth since the 2015 budget trough following the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and the Budget Control Act (BCA)
• Relative...

A Wild Second Quarter & Outlook for Remainder of 2020

Coronavirus Pandemic

The COVID-19 global pandemic continued to have massive implications during the second quarter, as cases continued to rapidly rise in the United States. The unemployment rate reached 14.7% in April, and U.S. GDP is estimated to have contracted by over 30% in the quarter after...

Pandemic Continues to Differentiate Restaurant Business Models

From publicly traded entities to mom and pop operations, restaurants have been one of the hardest hit industries during the coronavirus pandemic. With some U.S. regions facing a new surge in virus cases, restaurant business models are again under investors’ microscope.

In this blog, we share how...

Growth Stocks: Widest Valuation Gap in 20 Years

Multiple expansion has been a tremendous contributor to the outperformance of growth stocks since the Global Financial Crisis. Has it gone too far?

The below chart illustrates the valuation differential between deep value and high growth stocks since the late 1980s. One can see that the...

Our 3 Most Popular Blogs of 2020

We sincerely appreciate your continued interest and support of our market insights.  Below we recap our three most popular blog posts of 2020.  If there is a topic you would like for us to cover, please contact us.  

As always, we welcome your comments or questions.

Best wishes,Prospector...