Investment Approach

Longview’s investment approach is based on the philosophy of preserving our clients’ capital while striving to achieve superior after-tax returns over the long run.  In doing so, we keep things simple and safe. 

Equities

  • We have one equity portfolio, the "Longview Equity Composite"
  • We buy shares in a limited number of public companies (15-25 stocks)
  • We are attracted to excellent businesses - ones that are relatively predictable, profitable and growing and that have sustainable competitive advantages that should allow them to continue to produce high returns on their capital over the long-term
  • Our investment universe is comprised of mostly large North American based public companies operating international businesses, but we have the flexibility to invest in companies of all sizes
  • We are value-led investors - we invest only if a company is trading for less than our estimate of its intrinsic value and we can see attractive return potential
  • Our detailed, bottom-up investment analysis is based on our own proprietary research
  • Our investment process is highly-disciplined and repeatable
  • We invest as long-term business owners rather than short-term traders
  • Relatively low share buying/selling activity allows our clients’ capital to compound free of tax
  • We allocate shares to each client’s accounts in the most tax-effective manner, in order to maximize after-tax returns
  • We maintain an active sell-discipline - we will sell a stock if there has been a material adverse change in the business, if it has become clearly overvalued, if the holding has become overweight in our portfolio or if we find a substantially more attractive investment opportunity
  • We invest our own money alongside our clients - all Longview employees own the same equity portfolio as our clients, so our capital moves in lock-step with theirs. 

Fixed Income

  • We manage one fixed income portfolio of bonds and preferred shares
  • Our priority is to invest in safe securities issued by safe companies
  • We focus on tax-effective securities issued by companies with good credit ratings and strong balance sheets