Planet MicroCap Podcast | MicroCap Investing Strategies

A+ Capital Allocator, Inefficient, Fragmented Market with Valuation that Provides a Margin of Safety with Whit Huguley, Fund Manager at River Oaks Capital

Jan 21, 2025

Whit Huguley, Fund Manager at River Oaks Capital, shares his insights on microcap investing, blending experience from private equity with a focus on rigorous due diligence. He discusses the unique opportunities presented by the pandemic and the importance of capital allocation strategies like share buybacks. Whit emphasizes building strong relationships with company management and identifies qualities of successful micro-cap leaders. He also delves into current trends in community banking and the undervalued state of micro-cap firms.

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ANECDOTE

First In-Person Visit

Whit Huguley visited a small-cap company and discovered they hadn't received an in-person investor visit in years.
This highlighted an inefficiency in micro-cap markets and the value of in-person due diligence.

ANECDOTE

Meeting Dayton Judd

Whit Huguley realized Dayton Judd was an exceptional CEO during an in-person visit.
This reinforced the importance of due diligence and the potential of micro-cap markets.

INSIGHT

Management Team Importance

Management team quality is crucial, especially in micro-cap companies.
The smaller the company, the more the management team matters.

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The intelligent investor

Jason Zweig

Benjamin Graham

Written by Benjamin Graham, 'The Intelligent Investor' is a seminal work on value investing that has inspired millions since its original publication in 1949. The book emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between investing and speculation, calculating the intrinsic value of companies, and maintaining a margin of safety. The revised edition includes updated commentary by Jason Zweig, who provides modern examples and insights to help readers apply Graham's principles in today's market. Warren Buffett, a disciple of Graham, has praised the book as 'the best book about investing ever written'.

Good to Great

Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

Jim Collins

In 'Good to Great,' Jim Collins and his research team investigate why some companies achieve long-term greatness while others do not. The book identifies key concepts such as Level 5 Leadership, the Hedgehog Concept, a Culture of Discipline, and the Flywheel Effect. These principles are derived from a comprehensive study comparing companies that made the leap to greatness with those that did not. The research highlights that greatness is not primarily a function of circumstance but rather a result of conscious choice and discipline. The book provides practical insights and case studies to help businesses and leaders understand and apply these principles to achieve sustained greatness.

The outsider

Colin Wilson

In 'The Outsider,' Colin Wilson examines the psyche of the Outsider through the lives and works of various literary and cultural figures such as Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The book delves into the Outsider's experience of dislocation and his struggle to find meaning and purpose in a world that seems devoid of it. Wilson argues that the Outsider is a metaphysical man who seeks a transcending meaning and purpose for human existence, often feeling isolated and disconnected from society. The book is both a study of the Outsider's predicament and an impassioned call for a new form of existentialism that could provide a satisfying and objective religious understanding of life.

My guest on the show today is Whit Huguley, Fund Manager at River Oaks Capital. I've known Whit for a few years now, first having met him at one of my own conferences in Vegas, and have gotten to know and appreciate Whit's investing style. He launched his Fund, River Oaks Capital, about 5 years ago now, and while he's in the middle of writing his annual letter, he graciously jumped on the pod to talk more about what he's learned from running a MicroCap fund thus far. And for full disclosure, we discussed a number of companies during today's podcast, I am not a shareholder in any of them. For more information about River Oaks Capital, please visit: https://www.riveroaks-capital.com/ You can Follow Whit Huguley on Twitter/X: https://x.com/Whit_Huguley

We're excited to announce that we'll be partnering up with MicroCapClub for our full slate of investor conferences in 2025. Ian Cassel and his team at MicroCapClub have not only built and fostered the best community of MicroCap investors, but it's arguably one of the best investing communities, period.

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