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Rating: 
Summary: Elementary Book on "Value Investing"
Review: An investment book that belongs to the "easy-reading" section - one that takes an elementary spin on the subject title and purported to offer a "versatile" approach to value investing.
Fundamentalists/money managers wishing to stay on track or obtain a refresher's course on hard-core "value investing" will do well in (re-)reading Benjamin Graham's excellent "The Intelligent Investor" and "Security Analysis" as well as "The Essays of Warren Buffett" instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Serves as Both a Great Primer & Also a Great Idea Generator
Review: Ben Graham may have done for investing what Euclid did for geometry, but the Graham student must take a long and winding road to collect and organize Grahamian "theorems." Greenwald modernizes and thoughtfully organizes the value framework originally expounded by Graham, and shows how investors might take -and in the final section of the book, how several master investors DO take- Graham's notion of buying dollar bills for fifty cents and apply this central idea in creative ways to some of the less frequented areas of the market. Greenwald et.al. show a terrific aptitude for remaining informal and conversational while maintaining brevity and orderliness. Neophytes are unlikely to encounter a clearer, more concise explanation of `discounting future cash flows', and most students of value investing will be well-served by Greenwald's order of equity valuation: (1) Asset Value, (2) Earnings Power, (3) Growth, all of which are clearly explained. Additionally, Greenwald discusses a useful addition to common metrics such as `net asset value' and `liquidation value' with the concept of `replacement cost'. Greenwald also acknowledges and thoughtfully attempts to quantify the value investor's less traditionally acknowledged principle of `franchise value', which he judiciously attributes to Warren Buffett as the latter's singular contribution to investment analysis. The book's admirable brevity is also its primary shortcoming. Whereas Graham included senior debt and convertible debt vehicles both in Security Analysis and in his investment practices, this text is for all practical purposes only an examination of equities. If the authors of "Value Investing" ever opt to write about a value approach to bonds and other instruments, I'll bet they'd have a captive audience.
Rating: 
Summary: There are much better titles available
Review: Half of the book is a history of several value investors. But this section is quite superficial in how these individuals screened/found the opportunities they did. Little is told of how they valued the companies and how a wanna-be investor should procede in doing this themselves. The first half of the book is ok, but again could use more help in terms of how to find prospective value companies. Chapter 6 is about the only good chapter. It analyses WD-40 (the company). I recommend instead "The Intelligent Investor" (2003 ed.) by the late Ben Graham and Jason Zweig. It lives up to Buffett's praise of "...by far the best book about investing ever written."
Rating:
Summary: Value Investing in the 21st Century
Review: I am a professional investor (CFA charter holder and portfolio manager) and would suggest this book for anyone interested in the value style of investing. I would not recommend the book for a novice investor since some terminology is not explained. (Perhaps read this book after reading and understanding Benjamin Graham's The Intelligent Investor.) However, the book is an excellent read for someone with an understanding of investing. The book is divided into two main parts: The authors' views of different ways to value a company and profiles of successful value investors. I think the authors' Earnings Power Value (EPV) approach to valuing a company is cutting edge. (Basically EPV is a rehash of Enterprise Value.) Most investors tend to value stocks based on P/E ratios - only looking at equity in a company. However, the proper way to value a company is to look at its whole capital structure - Debt, Equity & Cash. EPV is a much better tool than the P/E ratio for calculating whether a company is undervalued. The second part of the book that profiles a half dozen or so successful value investors is interesting. It illustrates there are many different ways to execute a value oriented approach. The profiles do not give any hard cut rules that each investor follows, but it does give you a general idea. (I have been successful at applying some of the ideas in managing my own account.) The only flaw of the profiles is the lack of any type of track record. It would have been helpful to list the year-by-year returns for each investor compared to an index. (i.e. S&P 500 Index) Overall, it's a great book and it deserves a spot behind Ben Graham's Security Analysis and Intelligent Investor.
Rating: 
Summary: Good for beginners
Review: I think some expect this to be "the Intelligent Investor" which is decidedly is not. But for a lighter modern intro to what kind of thinking is behind value investing this book succeeds quite well. Enough examples to get the idea across. And written so it reads easily. If you find yourself wanting more, then just order "the Intelligent Investor" for your next read.
But this book succeeds quite well in the areas it aims to make clear.
Rating:
Summary: Greenwald doesn't know much about investing.
Review: The back cover of this book modestly proclaims that Mr. Greenwald is the "guru of Wall Street's gurus". I don't know what kind of gurus there are on Wall Street but if Mr. Greenwald is their mentor then I really feel sorry for them.
The very next day after I finished reading 'Value Investing' I attended a presentation, sponsored by NYSSA's Private Wealth Management Committee, where the author (editor?) presented the book. The presentation confirmed my first impressions: Not only is Mr. Greenwald confused about what Value Investing is but he doesn't seem to understand some fundamental concepts in Finance. For example, he claims that Compaq's major problem stems from the fact that the company put Alta Vista at market value on the balance sheet and then they had to write it off. Hasn't Mr. Greenwald heard about sunk costs? Investing in Alta Vista may have been a poor decision that destroyed shareholders' value but it is something that pertains to the past. It is not something that will continue to influence the firm's operating results in the future.
Greenwald claims that using asset valuation based on reproduction costs provides more accurate estimate of what the company might be worth then using NPV. According to him, NPV is too difficult to estimate and therefore is almost useless. I agree that NPV is difficult to estimate but if it was easy then everyone could be rich, right? In order to do better an individual investor must have a competitive advantage. Competitive advantage is something that one can do but the competition cannot. If balance sheet reading is easier than future cash flow forecasting then more investors should be able to do the former rather than the later. But if many people can do it then it does not give any competitive advantage. Those lucky few who have the exceptional ability to forecast future cash flows will have the competitive advantage and they will be the ones who will make billions of dollars. If Warren Buffet could not do something that is difficult for others then he wouldn't be so rich. The fact that NPV is difficult to estimate does not make it useless. On contrary, the difficulty makes it even more valuable because it gives competitive advantage to those who have the rare gift to see farther than the average individual.
The author claims that markets are not efficient but his idea of market inefficiency is very peculiar. According to him, for example, there cannot be any value in K-Mart because if there were any value in that stock then the horde of analyst, who follow the company, would have discovered it by now. I am not familiar with K-Mart but the statement he made sounds familiar to what the proponents of Efficient Market Hypothesis keep telling: markets are efficient because thousands of bright analysts are working day and night to uncover hidden value. If one can't find value because analysts have already dug out everything there is to know then what makes markets inefficient? Selling stocks to buy Christmas gifts? This can hardly be enough.
The authors do make some good points but overall the book is bad.
Rating:
Summary: Turkey and Where is the Beef?
Review: There is simply not enough value in this book to justify using it. I'm sorry but words like Alta Vista and Cisco just should not appear anywhere in a value investing book. Period and discussion over. At least not up to the present. Maybe in the future but I doubt it. Also there is way too much verbage to describe much of nothing. The modern budding value investor would be better served by other book including Security Analysis by Graham. A lot of detail is missing here and much of the analysis leaves one wondering if the authors know what value investing really is.
Rating:
Summary: Turkey and Where is the Beef?
Review: There is simply not enough value in this book to justify using it. I'm sorry but words like Alta Vista and Cisco just should not appear anywhere in a value investing book. Period and discussion over. At least not up to the present. Maybe in the future but I doubt it. Also there is way too much verbage to describe much of nothing. The modern budding value investor would be better served by other book including Security Analysis by Graham. A lot of detail is missing here and much of the analysis leaves one wondering if the authors know what value investing really is.
Rating:
Summary: Packed With Knowledge!
Review: This is a very lucid, practical introduction to the principles of value investing. It is detached, relatively objective considering the authors' bias in favor of the subject, doesn't hype or hard-sell and, on the whole, would be a valuable addition to any investor's bookshelf. If you're a relative beginner, your shelf will also need to include a dictionary of financial terms - the authors assume you already know the vocabulary. And who is the Graham cited in the title? He is Benjamin Graham, who all but invented security analysis. With coauthor David Dodd, he produced the book Security Analysis in 1934. Later, Graham wrote The Intelligent Investor. Both books are investment classics and have been revised and re-issued. This one may endure, as well, based on its thorough exposition on how to value a company and its instructive profiles of value investing heavyweights. Our recommendation: strong buy, long term hold.
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