衆所週知，巴菲特的投資策略達到了一個神奇的程度。一個在1990年1月的8175美元的投資在2013年的9月末價值已經超過了165000美元，在同樣的時間内，8175美元在標普500上的投資只能達到42000美元。但是巴菲特是怎麼做到的呢？下面是巴菲特投資理念的重要原理。
巴菲特理念
巴菲特遵從本傑明.格雷厄姆的價值投資觀點。價值投資人尋找價格低於其内在價值的股票。沒有一個特定的方法來衡量一個公司的内在價值，但是一般都是通過分析公司的基本面來做估計。像那些買便宜貨的人一樣，價值投資者尋找那些他認為在市場中被低估的股票，還有那些沒有被其他投資者意識到的優質股。
沃倫.巴菲特將這種價值投資帶到了另一個高度。許多投資者不支持有效市場假說，但是他們相信市場最終會青睞那些曾經或者正在被低估的優質股。然而，巴菲特卻不關心股票市場複雜的供求關系。事實上，他一點也不關心股票市場的活動。從他著名的句子“在短期内，市場是一個人氣競争，在長期中，它是一桿秤”中我們能的到提示。
他選擇股票時把每一個當成一個整體，僅僅基於他們作為一個公司的整體潛力。當持有一只股票進行長期投資的時候，巴菲特追求的不是資本得利而是那些有能力得利公司的持有權。當巴菲特投資一家公司的時候，他不關心市場最終是否能發現其價值，他關心那家公司作為一個業務賺錢的能力怎樣。
巴菲特方法
這裡我們看一下巴菲特在評估股票優秀程度和其價格的關系時如和通過問自己問題來找到優質股的。請記住，這不是巴菲特分析的全部，而是關於他怎樣尋找的小小的總結：
1.公司一貫表現良好嗎？
有時“股本回報率”（ROE)也被稱為“股東投資回報”。它揭示股東在持有股票中獲得收益的比率。巴菲特總是通過查看股本回報率來進行一家公司和同行業的另一家公司的對比，確認其表現是否一直良好。股本回報率計算方式如下：
淨收入/股東權益
僅觀察上一年的股本回報率是不夠的，投資者應當觀察5-10年的歷史股本回報率。
2.公司有避免過多負債嗎？
債務股本比是巴菲特仔細考慮的另一個因素。巴菲特更願意看到少量的債務，這樣收益的增長就是由股東的投資產生的，而不是借來的錢。債務股本比的計算方式如下：
負債總額/股東權益
這個比率顯示公司正在運營其資產的權益和債務比例。這個比率越高，運行公司的債務就越多。和股權相比，高債務水平可能引起收益不穩定和大量利息支出。在一個更嚴格的測試中，投資者只使用長期債務，而不是總債務進行上面的計算。
3．利潤率高嗎？他們在增長嗎？
一個公司的盈利能力不僅僅取決於它的盈利高低，而且也取決於能持續增長與否。利潤率是淨利潤除以總銷售得到的。要得到一個好的歷史利潤率指標，投資者至少要查看過去五年的利潤率。高利潤率表明公司運轉良好，但不斷增長的利潤則意味著管理極其有效並能成功控制費用。
4.公司上市了多久？
巴菲特通常只考慮那些已經上市了最少10年的公司。因此，那些在10内進行首次公開募股的科技公司將不會進入他的考慮範圍（更不用說巴菲特只在他完全理解的業務上投資，而他承認，他不知道現在的大多數科技公司是幹什麼的）。所以巴菲特的選擇標準之一是運行時間的長短：他尋找那些經歷了時間考驗但是目前仍被低估的公司的股票。
永遠不要低估歷史表現的價值，它能表明該公司能（或不能）增加股東的資產。但是請記住，一只股票的過去表現不能決定它的未來表現，價值投資人的作用是確定它能否像過去一樣表現好。這個判斷是非常棘手的，但是很明顯巴菲特做的非常好。
5.公司的產品依賴一個初級商品嗎？
起初你可能把這個問題當作一個激進的縮小公司的方法。但是，巴菲特卻把它看的十分重要。他傾向於（但不總是）回避那些和競争對手產品沒有明顯區別的公司，和那些依賴例如石油和天然氣等初級產品的公司。如果一個公司的產品和同行業的競争產品沒有任何區別，巴菲特把其區分出來並很少關註。任何難以複制的特徵都是巴菲特所說的“經濟護城河”或者“競争優勢”。經濟護城河越寬，它能在市場競争中獲得的份額就越大。
6.股票出售是其真實價格的25%折扣嗎？
判斷一個公司符合其他五個標準是一件事，但是判斷它是否被低估價值是價值投資中最困難的一件事，這也是巴菲特最重要的技巧。要檢查這一點，一個投資者必須通過例如收入、資產、收益等的大量的基礎分析來確定公司的内在價值。公司的内在價值通常高於（也更複雜）其清算價值-----即公司今天破產並被出售的價值。清算價值不包括沒有出現在財務報表上的無形資產，例如商品品牌。
一旦巴菲特確定了一個公司的整體内在價值，他就將其與當前市值------當前總價格做比較。如果公司的内在價值高於其市值至少25%，巴菲特認為這個公司有投資價值。聽起來很簡單，不是嗎？然而巴菲特的成功取決於他對公司内在價值無與倫比的判斷能力上。雖然我們能概括他的一些標準，但是我們卻不能知道他是怎麼得到對計算價值如此精確的掌握。
總結
正像你可能已經註意到的，巴菲特的投資風格就像到處尋找便宜貨購買的人一樣，反映了一個實際的、腳踏實地的態度。巴菲特把這一態度也維持在他生活的其他方面，他不居住在豪宅裡，他不收集轎車，也不乘坐豪華汽車去上班。這種投資風格並不是沒有受到诟病，但是你是否支持巴菲特，就像那句話說的，實踐出真知。他是世界上最有錢的人之一，擁有淨資產超過530億美元（福佈斯2013）。請註意，對包括巴菲特在内的價值投資者來說，最困難的是確定一個公司的内在價值。
Warren Buffett: How He Does It
It's not surprising that Warren Buffett's investment strategy has reached mythical proportions. A $8,175 investment in Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) in January 1990 was worth more than $165,000 by September 2013, while $8,175 in the S&P 500 would have grown to $42,000 within the aforementioned timeframe. But how did Buffett do it? Below are the most important tenets of Buffett's investment philosophy.
Buffett's Philosophy
Warren Buffett follows the Benjamin Graham school of value investing. Value investors look for securities with prices that are unjustifiably low based on their intrinsic worth. There isn't a universally accepted way to determine intrinsic wroth, but it's most often estimated by analyzing a company's fundamentals. Like bargain hunters, the value investor searches for stocks that he or she believes are undervalued by the market, stocks that are valuable but not recognized as such by the majority of other buyers.
Warren Buffett takes this value investing approach to another level. Many value investors do not support the efficient market hypothesis, but they do trust that the market will eventually start to favor those quality stocks that were, for a time, undervalued. Buffett, however, isn't concerned with the supply and demand intricacies of the stock market. In fact, he's not really concerned with the activities of the stock market at all. This is the implication in this paraphrase of his famous quote: "In the short term the market is a popularity contest; in the long term it is a weighing machine."
He chooses stocks solely based on their overall potential as a company - he looks at each as a whole. Holding these stocks as a long-term play, Buffett seeks not capital gain but ownership in quality companies extremely capable of generating earnings. When Buffett invests in a company, he isn't concerned with whether the market will eventually recognize its worth; he is concerned with how well that company can make money as a business.
Buffett's Methodology
Here we look at how Buffett finds low-priced value by asking himself some questions when he evaluates the relationship between a stock's level of excellence and its price. Keep in mind that these are not the only things he analyzes but rather a brief summary of what Buffett looks for:
1. Has the company consistently performed well?
Sometimes return on equity (ROE) is referred to as "stockholder's return on investment." It reveals the rate at which shareholders are earning income on their shares. Buffett always looks at ROE to see whether a company has consistently performed well compared to other companies in the same industry. ROE is calculated as follows:
= Net Income / Shareholder's Equity
Looking at the ROE in just the last year isn't enough. The investor should view the ROE from the past five to 10 years to gauge historical performance.
2. Has the company avoided excess debt?
The debt/equity ratio is another key characteristic Buffett considers carefully. Buffett prefers to see a small amount of debt so that earnings growth is being generated from shareholders' equity as opposed to borrowed money. The debt/equity ratio is calculated as follows:
= Total Liabilities / Shareholders' Equity
This ratio shows the proportion of equity and debt the company is using to finance its assets; and the higher the ratio, the more debt - rather than equity - is financing the company. A high debt level compared to equity can result in volatile earnings and large interest expenses. For a more stringent test, investors sometimes use only long-term debt instead of total liabilities in the calculation above.
3. Are profit margins high? Are they increasing?
A company's profitability depends not only on having a good profit margin but also on consistently increasing it. This margin is calculated by dividing net income by net sales. For a good indication of historical profit margins, investors should look back at least five years. A high profit margin indicates the company is executing its business well, but increasing margins means management has been extremely efficient and successful at controlling expenses.
4. How long has the company been public?
Buffett typically considers only companies that have been around for at least 10 years. As a result, most of the technology companies that have had their initial public offerings (IPOs) in the past decade wouldn't get on Buffett's radar (not to mention the fact that Buffett will invest only in a business that he fully understands, and he admittedly does not understand what a lot of today's technology companies actually do). It makes sense that one of Buffet's criteria is longevity: value investing means looking at companies that have stood the test of time but are currently undervalued.
Never underestimate the value of historical performance, which demonstrates the company's ability (or inability) to increase shareholder value. Do keep in mind, however, that a stock's past performance does not guarantee future performance - the value investor's job is to determine how well the company can perform as it did in the past. Determining this is inherently tricky, but evidently Buffett is very good at it.
5. Do the company's products rely on a commodity?
Initially you might think of this question as a radical approach to narrowing down a company. Buffett, however, sees this question as an important one. He tends to shy away (but not always) from companies whose products are indistinguishable from those of competitors, and those that rely solely on a commodity such as oil and gas. If the company does not offer anything different than another firm within the same industry, Buffett sees little that sets the company apart. Any characteristic that is hard to replicate is what Buffett calls a company's economic moat, or competitive advantage. The wider the moat, the tougher it is for a competitor to gain market share.
6. Is the stock selling at a 25% discount to its real value?
This is the kicker. Finding companies that meet the other five criteria is one thing, but determining whether they are undervalued is the most difficult part of value investing, and it's Buffett's most important skill. To check this, an investor must determine a company's intrinsic value by analyzing a number of business fundamentals including earnings, revenues and assets. And a company's intrinsic value is usually higher (and more complicated) than its liquidation value - what a company would be worth if it were broken up and sold today. The liquidation value doesn't include intangibles such as the value of a brand name, which is not directly stated on the financial statements.
Once Buffett determines the intrinsic value of the company as a whole, he compares it to its current market capitalization - the current total worth (price). If his intrinsic value measurement is at least 25% higher than the company's market capitalization, Buffett sees the company as one that has value. Sounds easy, doesn't it? Well, Buffett's success, however, depends on his unmatched skill in accurately determining this intrinsic value. While we can outline some of his criteria, we have no way of knowing exactly how he gained such precise mastery of calculating value.
Conclusion
As you have probably noticed, Buffett's investing style, like the shopping style of a bargain hunter, reflects a practical, down-to-earth attitude. Buffett maintains this attitude in other areas of his life: He doesn't live in a huge house, he doesn't collect cars and he doesn't take a limousine to work. The value-investing style is not without its critics, but whether you support Buffett or not, the proof is in the pudding. He is one of the richest people in the world, with a net worth of more than $53 billion (Forbes 2013). Do note that the most difficult thing for any value investor, including Buffett, is in accurately determining a company's intrinsic value.
本文由兄弟財經翻譯
文章來源：http://www.investopedia.com/articles/01/071801.asp