Financial Evaluation Quotes

Today, credit rating agencies rate companies, countries and bonds.

For me, money has never been an indicator. And it is very sad that each and every film these days is being judged by the money that it makes. It's a world that I don't want to be a part of, and I try and stay away from that.

Average investors are on the outside trying to look into the inside of the company or property they are investing in.

When I got my statement in January, I was worth $2.2 billion. Then I got another statement in August that said I was worth $3.2 billion. So I figure it's only nine months' earnings, who cares?

Managers and investors alike must understand that accounting numbers are the beginning, not the end, of business valuation.

Value investors look at cash flows. If a company can maintain present cash flows for 5 or 6 years, it’s a good investment. Investors then just hope that those cash flows - and thus the company’s value - don’t decrease faster than they anticipate.

In order to understand the movement of prices, you need not an oscilloscope to measure the entire market and reduce it to noise, but a microscope to investigate the creative process behind every company and its price.

We make investment decisions based on our evaluation of the most profitable combination of probabilities.

Assessing management quality is clearly one of the most important aspects of an investment decision.

Since there are a wide range of entrepreneurs fundraising at any given time, I looked at each opportunity as it has arisen and on its own merits. Then I've sat down with my financial advisers, we've looked at the numbers and gone for the businesses I believe have real potential.

They are but beggars that can count their worth.

If I collected all the diamonds in the world, I'd have no 'income' but I'd have a lot of 'assets'. Would my company be worth nothing because I have no income? A lot of Net companies are collecting assets. They have to be measured with a new set of metrics.

Economists and financial analysts are not like steelworkers or people in other occupations. They don't get evaluated based on their performance. They can mess up every day of the week through their whole careers, and this would be just fine, as long as they messed up in the same way as their peers.

I never look at an acquisition really by size.