Quick reminder on these “field guides” — In his book, One Up On Wall Street, Peter Lynch wrote about the 6 “story types” he invests in (slow growers, stalwarts, fast growers, cyclicals, asset plays, and turnarounds).
I found this universe way too narrow and came up with 15 themes I’m regularly looking at. I’ve already written about 10 of them (linked below), and today I’m covering #11.
Past investment theme guides:
Part 1 — beaten down shares (my favorite source of idea generation)
Part 2 — spin-offs (my favorite source for actionable investments) ($)
Part 3 — post-reorg equities (infrequent but actionable)
Part 4 — management changes (good ones are uncommon but actionable) ($)
Part 5 — insider buying (a checklist of what to watch for)
Part 6 — activist investing (highly actionable source of investments)
Part 7 — public LBO & deleveraging stories (volatile ideas good for the watchlist)
Part 8 — inflection investing (the crown jewel for big returns) ($)
Part 9 — asset plays (balance sheet investing ($)
Part 10 — goodco/badco investing (feeder for activists & other catalysts) ($)
Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)
In aggregate, acquisitions are known to destroy more shareholder value than create it.1
Fortunately, there’s a wide variety of M&A niches out there, many of which offer good returns. Here are 7 types of M&A investments I’m regularly looking at:
