On My Mind & Worth Noting
I decided to have a look at Merrill Lynch’s Capital Market Outlook again this week, and stumbled across the following:
After reading the first few lines on biotechnology and life sciences Thermo Fisher Scientific and Danaher came to my mind. Both companies have great portfolios in the life sciences and diagnostics spaces.
Interestingly enough, the market is not pricing in huge future tailwinds into the share prices at the moment. Both companies trade at the lower end of their EV/EBITDA valuation ranges.
Francois Rochon of Giverny Capital published his Annual Letter 2025. It is worth reading, some great analogies can be found between railway investments and the current AI capex. The best part perhaps is usually the podium of errors:
Gold Medal: Canadian National Railway
In my brief (!) historical text about railways in this letter, you may have noticed that CN was privatized by the Canadian government in 1995. Its shares were then listed on the Toronto stock exchange. We could therefore have invested in it at that time. In Peter Lynch’s book “Beating the Street,” published in 1992, there was this rule: “Whatever the Queen is selling, buy it!” But unfortunately, I ignored Peter’s rule and passed on it. The following figures will send chills down your spine: the share price has risen from $1.75 in December 1995 (adjusted for stock splits) to $136 in December 2025. With the dividends received over the years, we’re talking about an approximate annual return of 17% over 30 years. Would you believe me if I told you that this is a better return than Microsoft’s for the same period?
Thank you for reading along.