VSC half yearly accounts

First things first. In the last post I talked about predominantly being a value investor but also a growth investor if necessary. I'd like to point out that i believe, at times, that it's not always clear-cut in distinguishing  between a value stock and a growth stock. I haven't looked into this sort of literature in depth but drawing a line between the two isn't necessarily a fluid task. I mean, if a stock has a P/E of 13 it may be considered a value stock, but, if it's 14, is it now classified as a growth? I'm not sure where the distinction lies.

Taking a different view point, Buffett has argued (i think it was in his 1992 annual letter to shareholders but i may be wrong on the date) that growth and value investing aren't separate concepts. His basic premise is that when you forecast future inflows using whichever method you use, you articulate growth rates in those forecasts. Therefore, as Buffett puts it, value investing and growth investing are "joined at the hip". Buffett's business partner, Charlie Munger, has also made the statement that all investing is value investing, i.e. paying less for something than what you perceive it to be worth. The point of this was to suggest that i didn't want to necessarily label myself as one type of investing as it can be argued that they may be the more or less similar depending on the way you view the situation.

Now, onto the reason why i wanted to make a post. VSC came out with their half yearly reports and to be blunt, I'm not too happy. Revenue generation was weak, and the large inclinations in the bottom line came from cost cutting and one-off boosts such as tax offsets which aren't a core part of the business and isn't recurring. For these reasons, adjustments need to be made. Looking at it this way, the growth was quite poor. I still believe the future for the company is promising.  The fundamentals are still quite strong, and, the company has had to deal with tougher problems than this in the past and have come out quite clean. For example, problems with fraudulent management to the Pan Pharmaceutical debacle were much greater problems. Some of these issues date back to 2000, but, it's still relevant in pointing out that the company have been through worse and have pulled through. So, i believe it's too early to start drawing conclusions just yet.

In other news, I'm making a purchase of a new stock this week but will still maintain a surplus of cash  in order to capitalise on opportunities as they arise.