“Table 7 is the record of Stan Perlmeter. Stan was a liberal arts major at the University of Michigan who was a partner in the advertising agency of Bozell & Jacobs. We happened to be in the same building in Omaha. In 1965 he figured out I had a better business than he did, so he left advertising. Again, it took five minutes for Stan to embrace the value approach…"-- Warren Buffett's introduction to Stan Perlmeter in his essay: The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville.
Stan Perlmeter: Background, bio, returns & philosophy
Like Rick Guerin, another of Warren Buffett’s Superinvestors, not much is known about Stan Perlmeter after the Superinvestors essay was published.
However, we do know that Stan Perlmeter had no formal business education. He started off as a liberal arts major at the University of Michigan, then moving to the advertising agency of Bozell & Jacobs where he became partner. Buffett convinced Stan Perlmeter to adopt the value investing mentality during 1965 and the rest is history.
Stan Perlmeter did not own what Bill Ruane owned; he did not own what Schloss owned, and he did not own what Rick owned. In fact, none of these ‘Superinvestors’ ever found themselves making the same investments, they all found value in their own areas of competence. And Stan Perlmeter didn’t care much for anything else apart from deep value.
Every time Stan Perlmeter brought a stock it was because he was getting more for his money than he was paying. In other words, he was buying $1 for less than $1 -- the underlying principle of deep value investing.
Stan Perlmeter wasn’t concerned about quarterly earnings projections or even next year’s earnings projections. He didn't care which Wall Street brokers had a buy recommendation on the stock or a sell recommendation. He wasn’t interested in price momentum, volume, or anything. He was simply asking: what is the business worth?
When the business was trading at a significant discount to what Stan Perlmeter thought it was worth, he would buy.
The results speak for themselves.
