European stocks looked a risky bet in the aftermath of the European sovereign debt crisis but markets are now repaying investors who saw value in those battered shares. This week the pan-European FTSE Eurofirst 300 finally clawed its way back to a level last seen in May 2008. Early on in the economic collapse, confidence was hammered and equity prices sent spiralling. But anyone investing in the region over the past year or so could well have made a handsome profit, particularly in small caps. According to one of our best performing screens, there are plenty of opportunities still to be had.
Later this month we’ll notch up the first full year of tracking the European versions of our 66 GuruModel portfolios. Those screens have had the good fortune to be picking up shares at a time of rising confidence in European stocks. The Eurofirst is up over 11% since last April and smaller stocks have performed superbly. Over 1-year, MSCI’s Europe Small Cap Index was up by nearly 41% at the end of March (here).
Screen of Screens
In the recent quarterly review of strategies, it was growth and momentum that came out the big winners in the early months of 2014. But over the year one of the most impressive displays was seen on the Screen of Screens (here). This is a strategy that was a frequent topic of conversation on our stand at the recent UK Investor Show. It works very simply by highlighting companies that are passing the criteria for at least four (and in some cases up to 12) other long-only guru-inspired screens.
That sounds like a pretty unscientific approach to finding shares. Yet it has consistently proved to be one of the best performing of Stockopedia’s tracked strategies, both in the UK and Europe. In just over 11 months it has returned 58.5% (all screens are rebalanced quarterly at mid prices).
Part of the reason for this success is the screen’s tendency to find shares with strong blends of good quality, attractive value and positive momentum. This bubble chart shows where all 96 of the current qualifiers are positioned in terms of quality and value. It is based on Stockopedia StockRanks, which rank every company in the market from 1-100 on each factor using a blended combination of ratios and metrics. As…
