Matthew Watson, Portfolio Manager at James Investment Research, Offers His Contrarian Stock Picks

June 7, 2018

Matthew Watson, CFA, CPA, is a Portfolio Manager at James Investment Research, Inc. Mr. Watson graduated from Wright State University in 2007, where he earned a double Bachelor of Science in accounting and finance. He earned his Master of Accountancy in 2008. He is a Certified Public Accountant and has also earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation. Mr. Watson has been with James Advantage Funds since 2007 and he is currently a member of the Investment Committee.

In this exclusive interview with the Wall Street Transcript, Matthew Watson outlines his current portfolio and the investment process that created it.

“First and foremost, we are known for capital preservation. That is what our firm has been founded on and what we have done for over 45 years for our clients. The Golden Rainbow Fund was one of the best performing funds in 2008. It was only down around 5.5%, and the stock market was down 37% on the S&P 500. We pride ourselves on capital preservation and don’t think investors appreciate capital preservation today in an environment in which stock markets have been going up for almost 10 years. For the long term, the key is to preserve and grow wealth by not losing it in the first place. Warren Buffett’s rule number one is don’t lose the money, and we believe that wholeheartedly.”

One example of the contrarian nature of Matthew Watson is in the entertainment indusrty sector.

“A stock that has not been doing very well recently, but we own it and has good valuations and good profitability is Viacom (NASDAQ:VIAB). They are a content provider like Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX). People are willing to pay very, very high multiples of earnings for Netflix. For some reason, they have left Viacom in the dust.”

To get the rest of Matthew Watson’s top picks and pans, read the entire interview in the Wall Street Transcript.