310- Moat and Processes

In thinking about the process of finding wonderful companies at attractive prices, it helps to think of what I call the Four Ms: meaning, management, margin of safety, and moat.  This podcast is focusing on moat.   Most people know a moat to be the water around a castle but in investing terms, a moat is the durable competitive advantage that a company has that protects it from being attacked by competitors.   A moat is what makes a company predictable and allows us to put a value on the business. Charlie Munger said that “Coca-Cola is the perfect business because it has this gigantic durable competitive advantage, or moat, which gives it predictable cash flow.”    This allows us to figure out what the future cash flow will be and value the company today, so we know whether we can buy it on sale or not.   Finding a business with a wide moat is key to finding a successful business to own, because a business with a wide moat is much more predictable for the next 20 years than a business with no moat.   The idea of the moat is really simple. If an industry looks as if it might be very easy to get into, there probably isn’t a moat. On the other hand, if an industry looks as though it might be really hard to get into and be successful, you’ll probably find some wide-moat businesses.   In today’s podcast, Phil and Danielle discuss moat and value, and the processes in which they pick stocks with confidence.    Learn more about moat and the other three Ms of investing with this free guide that I’ve created for you: https://bit.ly/31xiBto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices