Widely respected and admired, Philip Fisher is among the most influential investors of all time. His investment philosophies, introduced almost 40 years ago, are not only studied and applied by today's financiers and investors, but are also regarded by many as gospel. This book is invaluable for investors and has been since it was first published in 1958. This updated edition retains the investment wisdom of the original edition and includes the perspectives of the author's son Ken Fisher, an investment guru in his own right, in an expanded preface and introduction.

Listening Length

13 hours and 10 minutes
Author

Philip A. Fisher, see all
Narrator

Christopher Grove
Audible release date

August 20, 2019
Language

English
Publisher

Gildan Media, LLC
ASIN

B07WF9L8DH
Version

Unabridged
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Audiobook
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Product details

Listening Length	13 hours and 10 minutes
Author	Philip A. Fisher, Kenneth L. Fisher - introduction contributor
Narrator	Christopher Grove
Whispersync for Voice	Ready
Audible.com Release Date	August 20, 2019
Publisher	Gildan Media, LLC
Program Type	Audiobook
Version	Unabridged
Language	English
ASIN	B07WF9L8DH
Best Sellers Rank	#50,437 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals) #282 in Investing & Trading #487 in Personal Finance (Audible Books & Originals) #1,363 in Investing (Books)

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4.6 out of 5

2,348 global ratings

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Richard of Connecticut

You can ignore this book, but only at your PERIL!!!!

Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2007

Verified Purchase

Having been associated with Wall Street for 35 years, I was lucky enough to have been in the same room with Philip Fisher on more than one occasion. He was a completely self-contained man, extremely comfortable in his own skin. He knew who he was, what he was, and what he could be. He possessed zero airs about him. These traits seem to run freely in many MASTER investors, including Warren Buffett.

Many have mentioned that Buffett considers himself to be 85% Benjamin Graham, and 15% Philip Fisher. This needs to be updated. If you spoke with Buffett today, he would tell you that those ratios are distorted, and the reason is Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett's investing partner at Berkshire Hathaway.

Charlie Munger is cut from the same cloth as Philip Fisher. They are growth players, and willing to pay up for a stock. For decades Buffett could NEVER PAY UP for a stock. He wanted them dirt cheap, so cheap in fact that some big plays got away from him forever. I don't know how many years ago, Buffett mentioned in a meeting I attended that he once owned a considerable amount of Disney. It would be a controlling amount in today's market; it got away from him, and tens of billions of dollars in that play alone.

In the old days when Buffett was strictly Graham and Dodd, he could not buy a GROWTH stock. He still cringes at the thought. Munger however taught Buffett to pay up. An example was Flight Safety International for which Buffett paid a previously unheard price-earning ratio. There are people around Buffett who know him well who will tell you that Munger is the superior investor. What you need to know is that sometimes stocks are DIRT CHEAP because they are DIRT, to use a Munger line.

Philip Fisher like Munger is a MASTER INVESTOR worthy of spending whatever time you can spare studying. If you want to walk in the footsteps of a MASTER, you must study the MASTER, and Fisher has a tremendous amount to offer.

I have managed billions of dollars in my lifetime. I am telling you this because you need to know that the SKUTTLEBUTT method that Fisher is famous for is something that anyone can used, starting today. Most of Wall Street research or any research that I have seen over the decades is not worth the paper it is printed on. On more than one occasion I have asked if the paper is soft enough to use for toilet paper.

With the scuttlebutt method, you talk to everyone but the company you are studying. Please allow me to illustrate. If you are thinking of investing in a car company, you start visiting car dealers. You learn the lingo, you read trade periodicals, maybe even a few car magazines, but be careful. Magazines and newspapers are completely jaded in their reporting by how much advertising dollars they receive from certain companies. You didn't know that because no one will ever dare print it.

If a newspaper wants to bury an important story on a company that gives them tremendous advertising dollars, they will run the unfavorable story, but it will be in the Saturday morning edition, which is the least read edition of the week. You need to know these things. I used Scuttlebutt back in the 80's, to accumulate a massive position in Chrysler when it was near bankruptcy. The stock went from $6 to $200 after splits. It isn't hard. You don't need to be a big market player, anybody really can do it.

You do need an inquisitive mind, and I believe an innovative one as well. Fisher was a guy who thought outside the box, and that's why he was immensely rich, as is his son Ken. Philip Fisher is a guy that made a fortune in FMC Corporation, owned it for 30 or more years. He was a ground floor player in Texas Instruments, owned it and made thousands of percent on the stock. He was every bit Buffett's equal, and to Fisher's credit, he gave us the greatest gift of all. He wrote a book, and was open with his readers about how to attain great wealth in the market.

He takes the "Efficient Market Hypothesis" (EMT), and blows it out of the water. His returns and Buffett's are so many standard deviations away from the mean, that EMT can't survive an investigation based on their results.

He gives you a 15-point criteria list to identify the types of companies that meet his screening. He also gives you five don'ts, and then five more to protect you as an investor. What Fisher is really doing is giving you a TEMPLATE to used as an investor. This is what you need. This is no different than going into the Marine Corps, and spending 12 weeks in basic training. Once you're done, you have certain smart behaviors drilled into your psyche so deep that in combat, and investing is combat, you can fall back on these techniques to survive. They become automatic. No matter what investment turns up, you can put it through the filters that have stood the test of time.

In closing, I would like to say one more thing about the Scuttlebutt technique. Recently, I had to make a decision to invest a considerable amount of money in the auto sector. One of the people I consulted with, is a legend in his 90's, who is the greatest mutual fund investor of the 20th century, probably worth over a billion dollars. He says to me in passing, do you know whom Toyota, the greatest car company in the world fears? The answer is the South Korean car companies. That my friends is worth a fortune, and is a 20 year stock play that Philip Fisher would have envied.

Richard Stoyeck

302 people found this helpful

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A Contrarian View

Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2006

Verified Purchase

I have scanned the reviews listed here, and I am well aware that Warren Buffet is 85% Ben Graham and 15% Philip Fisher. Nonetheless, I must say that Fisher's book, while valuable insofar as it has some positive applications, has a few drawbacks, particularly as concerns the individual investor.

First and foremost, Fisher emphasizes prospective growth in earnings. As Ben Graham (and any number of other authors) has noted, "earnings" is strictly an accounting term that must be adjusted to accord to the investor's needs and market reality, as compared to GAAP requirements (Marty Whitman's book entitled "The Aggressive Conservative Investor" does an excellent job discussing the shortcomings of GAAP with respect to the individual investor).

Secondly, Fisher emphasizes quality in management (example: he advises "Does the management have a determination to continue to develop products or processes that will still further increase total sales potentials when the growth potentials of currently attractive product lines have largely been exploited?"). Again, this is something that institutional investors might be able to focus upon, but for an individual investor to come to a conclusion based upon publicly-available information might be somewhat difficult (as an aside, Porter's book on Competitive Advantage might be more useful for readers trying to determine a company's competitive environment).

I could lob comparable criticisms at a few of the other points (another example: "How effective are the company's research and development efforts relative to its size?"). From personal experience, any biotech company will likely trumpet the skills of its staff in uncovering new drugs, but the drugs must still be safe and effective per the FDA in order to be sold in the US. How can most individual investors reach any reasonable conclusion with respect to that point?

The fundamental shortcoming in this book is that most people seeking to apply his principles will be guided by word of mouth or the "irrational exhuberance" of the market. There is little analytical guidence to ensure that the investor's conclusions are grounded.

This leads me to my ultimate conclusion: although I've spent a fair amount of time lobbing rocks at this book, the book itself may be useful, but only if combined with the sort of in-depth financial statement analysis that Ben Graham proposes in "Security Analysis," which contains a detailed discussion of analytical means to review management performance, or perhaps an analysis of competive position as propounded in "Expecations Investing" by Rappaport and Mouboussin. To say things slightly differently, the book provides a good overview of a type of investment philosophy, but unlike the others referenced before, it does not provide tools to analyze a particular company.

Warren Buffett is in a different position than the average investor. To fail to realize that is folly. As a whole, the book reads easily, and Warren Buffett has said he likes Fisher - maybe that's why so many people like it - but without grounding on how to value a particular stock at a point in time, I cannot say that this book should a primary source of information for someone without grounding in finance and securities analysis.

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Longacre

In a nutshell – invest in companies with a wide moat, strong management, and long-term growth.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 18, 2023

Verified Purchase

This book is mainly for experienced investors. But it has something for everyone.

First published in 1958, the second edition includes other writings by Fisher. It also includes an introduction by the author’s son (an expert in his own right).

Fisher’s book is all about how to find those companies with outstanding growth potential. He was not a fan of economic forecasting. He downgraded the importance of big-picture economic analysis and upgraded the importance of studying individual companies.

There are also many little gems in the book. For example, whenever the fear of war causes the stock market to fall, Fisher says we should buy. That’s because after a war ends, the market always ends up higher.

For my full review see https://brandhord.com/2023/07/02/common-stocks-and-uncommon-profits-and-other-writings-by-philip-a-fisher-brandhord-book-review/

Kindle Customer

Good read

Reviewed in India on July 4, 2023

Verified Purchase

i would recommend to include more EXamples of bad investments. which contradicts efficient market theory.
More light on inefficient market theory.

Sandy

Why does Warren buffet buy Apple and not Amazon

Reviewed in India on December 2, 2019

Verified Purchase

I have always wondered, as to why does Warren buffet buy certain stocks, while avoiding equally good others ? If you read this book you will know for sure. Recommended by Buffet himself this book is one of the classics, as you already probably know. Although it is dated in some sense, however the core message remains quite relevant even in today's time, as much it did perhaps 70 years ago, when the book was originally written.

Philips Fisher introduces the reader with the "Scuttlebutt" approach to stock picking, quite early on in the book. As you move further he buttress his views with data and practical example. He begins by saying that the best time to sell a stock is "never" which he practiced himself when he held the stocks of Motorola, Texas Instrument and Raychem for the entirety fo his life, although his son in the preface admits that by the end of his fathers career, he had become recalcitrant to the new stock while solely focusing on the above mentioned three top stocks.

The book can be surmised by the following philosophies :
1. Growth companies : The company should be in a growth sector meaning it sales should grow to perpetuity.
2. New Growth : The company should be able to find new avenues of growth if the current lines dry up, either through Research and Development or through inorganic acquisitions.
3. Moat : There should be sufficient barriers to entry in the product line up to prevent other players from entering the same market and usurping the incumbent player (think IPhone).

Apart from these key message he also belabours upon the "Scuttlebutt" approach most of which I found to be quite irrelevant for retail investors, because this approach requires deep understanding of the company, its management, its customers, its debtors et al. He advices the investor to speak to the management, employees and customer and get a good sense of the culture and challenges. Also there is a focus on labour/unions. Although the book is written in a different time and most of the companies discussed perhaps don't even exist today, I still found this book to be quite refreshing to read.

It is a great book foe novice and Professionals alike. It is a must have in your library. It reinforces the philosophy of "value investing" in the fast paced world of "automated trading". Enjoy !

54 people found this helpful

Elias

Sehr interessantes Buch

Reviewed in Germany on December 25, 2022

Verified Purchase

Das Buch hat ohne Zweifel geholfen meine Investments zu verbessern und hat auch meine Perspektive verändert.

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Caio Pereira

Obra atemporal!

Reviewed in Brazil on April 7, 2021

Verified Purchase

"Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits" de Philip A. Fisher é uma obra atemporal. Fisher foi outro grande nome que influenciou Warren Buffett em suas estratégias de investimento. A pegada qualitativa vem do Fisher.

Diferentemente de outros autores e livros de investimento, que focam em indicadores, fórmulas, múltiplos, etc, este livro mostra a importância de prestar atenção ao negócio em si, seu corpo de executivos, seus investimentos em novos produtos e negócios, bem como a forma como trata seus colaboradores.

Fisher coloca um grande peso na inovação. Para ele, empresas capazes de crescer constantemente possuem uma gestão ávida por melhoria contínua, que sabe utilizar os lucros para reinvestir em novos produtos, novos mercados, sempre com os olhos atentos aos concorrentes e novos entrantes. Para o autor, empresas assim são poucas. Mas quando identificadas, podem trazer retornos nunca imaginados para aqueles que detém suas ações.

O mais legal é o quão atual é este livro. Sua primeira edição foi laçada no final dos anos 50! E já nessa época Philip avaliava a importância de um bom time, uma boa orientação e o foco em tecnologia e inovação.

Investidor contrário por natureza, Philip A. Fisher também nos conta a importância de ter controle emocional e não se deixar levar pelos ânimos do mercado financeiro. Para ele, as grandes oportunidades na maioria das vezes estão fora dos holofotes dos analistas financeiros. Por isso, é preciso sempre estudar e tomar as próprias decisões, não se deixando levar por opiniões contrárias.

Um livro muito bom! Repleto de insights para investidores e para profissionais diversos! Também traz outros escritos feitos pelo autor! Show!

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Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings: 2nd Edition Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

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