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I also find it interesting that you seem to be able to find a lot of cheap stocks in Japan. This is probably due to the fact that there are a lot of smaller companies listed in Japan. In general, the Japanese market is not so cheaply valued, see below for one of the better valuation overviews I know of. However, these should be taken with a pinch of salt as there are often good reasons for the valuations.

https://economistwritingeveryday.com/2023/08/17/us-stocks-are-expensive-these-countries-are-not/

https://theideafarm.com/p/2q24-global-valuations

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Japan has A LOT of smaller companies. The really cheap stuff is on the smaller market cap names. I don't think the big indexes like the Nikkei are cheap. These companies can all do a lot better on capital allocation (re: buybacks), but Sanko Techno raised dividend 13 times in last 14 years and has plans 2 more increases over next 2 years. Not bad! Would love to see some sizeable buybacks though.

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Sep 3Edited

The stock is pretty illiquid. I have seen that the stock price has risen quite sharply today. This was also the case with Sanyo. Perhaps this blog is influencing the stock price (?) This depends e.g. on the reach of the blog. It would also be quite amazing.

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It is fairy illiquid and small. ADV is like 8k shares or something. I'm sure some people follow my work and trade, but historically most of my articles have not led to any real pops. These last two did though. I own about 10k shares in Sanko Techno. My last disclosure of Sanko Techno shares was in my year end in review which was 9k shares.

I bought some Sanko Techno last week, but only a small amount. The majority of my current holdings I've had for over a year. The same goes for Sanyo Industries which I've held for over a year. I have not sold any shares since both articles have gone up. I typically trim on the way up as they become oversized positions.

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Sep 3Edited

Yes, it could be a kind of small compensation if the price has actually risen because of the article. I don't see a problem. (Where I've seen a pop regularly so far after the publication of an article is on www.nonamestocks.com. However, Dan Schum writes about extremely illiquid U.S. stocks (market capitalisation < 10 million) and publishes little new articles these days.)

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