Knowledge Leaders

The Fundamental Case for Canon April 13, 2015

Posted by Knowledge Leaders Team in Knowledge Leaders

Last week we received a good question from a client asking for our thoughts on Canon, the well-known maker of office machinery and cameras. Excepts from our response are below. From a relative strength perspective (relative to the MSCI ACWI), Canon has been in a well-defined long-term downtrend for the last four years.

Time To Take A Hard Look At Juniper Networks April 02, 2015

Posted by Knowledge Leaders Team in Knowledge Leaders

Academic research has shown that not all research and development (R&D) is created equal. In every industry, you have two sets of companies: Knowledge Leaders and Knowledge Followers. On the one hand, you have Knowledge Leaders which are companies that introduce new and innovative products. These type of company’s follow a strategic innovation strategy.

Innovation Boom, R&D Spillovers and Stock Performance March 17, 2015

Posted by Knowledge Leaders Team in Knowledge Leaders

There is a new innovation boom playing out in the United States that has many positive implications for US equities. In July 2013, the BEA began including investment in intellectual property in National Income and Product Accounts. As part of this benchmark revision, the BEA revised the US national accounts going back to 1947 to

Knowledge Leaders Continue Their Outperformance YTD – DM Outperforming by 5% March 16, 2015

Posted by Knowledge Leaders Team in Knowledge Leaders

The outperformance of the world’s most knowledge intensive companies has continued over the last few weeks and in developed markets the outperformance gap relative to all developed market equities has widened.

Pop Quiz: What Is The Best Performing Regional Sector YTD? March 12, 2015

Posted by Knowledge Leaders Team in Knowledge Leaders

The recent focus of the financial world (including for us) has been on the massive currency moves going on in the forex markets. By this point, everyone and their grandma knows that the US dollar has been on an explosive move higher.

How Advertising Creates An Economic Asset Or Why Coke Has $190 Billion Market Cap March 09, 2015

Posted by Knowledge Leaders Team in Knowledge Leaders

As we never tire of pointing out, the massive levels of intangible assets on multinational corporations’ balance sheets is one the most overlooked drivers of profitability by the investor community.

When $75 Billion In Intangible Capital Goes Unnoticed March 05, 2015

Posted by Knowledge Leaders Team in Knowledge Leaders

One of the flagship principles of our investment process is an investment in intangible capital should be treated the same from an accounting standpoint as an investment in physical capital . Said differently, we are firm believers in the symmetry principle for capital accounting.

Knowledge Continues Outperforming In 2015 February 20, 2015

Posted by Knowledge Leaders Team in Knowledge Leaders

We have developed two indexes that are designed to track the world’s leading innovators based on our proprietary intangible-adjusted data We have a developed markets knowledge leader index and an emerging markets knowledge leader index. Both indexes are equal-weighted and are rebalanced twice a year (April and October).

Intangible Case Study: Becton Dickinson (Ticker: BDX) February 18, 2015

Posted by Knowledge Leaders Team in Knowledge Leaders

Our good friend Jeff Saut from Raymond James highlighted our favorite topic in his daily ”Morning Tack” today. That topic of course is intangible capital! Our focus in Denver is finding companies that invest and create large reservoirs of intangible capital in order to deliver sustainable, growing earnings in the future.

Knowledge Leaders are Surging Ahead of the Pack in 2015 January 21, 2015

Posted by Knowledge Leaders Team in Knowledge Leaders

2015 has so far thrown investors some curve balls in just three short weeks. Fortunately, one trend has remained firmly intact this year which is the outperformance of global Knowledge Leaders.

The Intangible Case For Autodesk December 04, 2014

Posted by Knowledge Leaders Team in Knowledge Leaders

Autodesk (Ticker: ADSK) is a design software and services company that serves customers in various fields ranging from architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, digital media and entertainment. We think there is a positive case to be made for Autodesk in 2015, especially when one properly accounts for their vast intangible capital reservoir on their balance sheet.

Knowledge Leaders Are Handling Increased Volatility Better Than Knowledge Followers October 13, 2014

Posted by Knowledge Leaders Team in Knowledge Leaders

As we never tire of saying, we believe that companies that continually invest in knowledge-intensive activities such as research and development and have deep reservoirs of intangible capital on its balance sheet are structurally misunderstood and undervalued in the financial community.

Hyperbolic Discounting and Intangible Capital October 01, 2014

Posted by Knowledge Leaders Team in Knowledge Leaders

For most investors, investments in research and development (R&D) and investments in other intangible assets such as brand building, employee training and codified information are overlooked and misunderstood. Current business accounting standards contribute to this misunderstanding by treating intangible investments as current period expenses rather than as the capital investments they truly are.

Knowledge Leaders Continue To Outperform Knowledge Followers September 29, 2014

Posted by Knowledge Leaders Team in Knowledge Leaders

We have introduced our knowledge leader concept to our readers over the past few weeks (click here, here, here and here for more information). Today, we thought we would check in on how knowledge leaders (i.e. leading, innovative firms with a deep intangible capital reservoir) have done relative to knowledge followers (i.e.

GaveKal Capital Unveils New Innovation Indexes September 17, 2014

Posted by Knowledge Leaders Team in Knowledge Leaders

Firm Launches First Strategic Beta-Style Index Family to Track World’s Leading Innovators DENVER, Colo., September 17, 2014 – GaveKal Capital today introduced the GaveKal Knowledge Leaders Indexes, the first family of indexes designed to track the world’s leading innovators.

Disclosures

The information presented here is for informational purposes only and is not to be construed as an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, securities. Some investments are not suitable for all investors, and there can be no assurance that any investment strategy will be successful. Hyperlinks may be included in this message that provide direct access to other internet resources, including web sites. While we believe these links are to reliable sources, Knowledge Leaders Capital (“KLC”) has no control over the accuracy or content of information contained on these sites. Although we make every effort to ensure such links are accurate, up to date and relevant, we have no control over pages maintained by external providers. The views expressed by these external providers on their own web pages or on external sites they link to are not necessarily those of Knowledge Leaders Capital.

The information provided on this blog is for illustrative or example purposes only and should not be construed as KLC’s opinion or investment outlook. As of the most recent quarter end, the named companies may have been held by KLC. For full information including additional policies and full disclosures, please visit our website: KnowledgeLeadersCapital.com.

Any reference to Index performance does not represent the performance of any investment product offered by Knowledge Leaders Capital, LLC. An investor cannot invest directly in an index. The performance of client account may vary from the Index performance. Index returns shown are not reflective of actual investor performance nor do they reflect fees and expenses applicable to investing.

Companies are selected for “Spotlights” based on high levels of innovation activities in their respective industries and illustrate innovation being employed across all sectors and geographies. Spotlight selection is separate from stock selection by the investment team. Spotlights are not necessarily representative of investment opportunities and can be selected regardless of investment performance or inclusion as a KLC holding.