One of the advantages of investing in shipping stocks is that as a knowledgeable investor you can spot movements in the market ahead of the generalists. I listened to the Costamare (“CMRE”) earnings call on July 28. They noted an improving market for container ship leasing, noting that the idle tonnage was declining and rates for larger ships were improving. I did some reading, and corroborated that the market was getting substantially better as global trade returned.
There are those who proclaim value is dead and shipping is destined to under perform. Had one purchased one share of Facebook (“FB”) and CMRE on the first Monday of August, today, on the morning of a down Dow Jones Industrial Average of 750 points, one would be down 2% on the FB purchase and up 19.8% on CMRE.
46 analysts cover FB. The chance of a unique insight that doesn’t get picked up in the market in five minutes is unlikely. On the other hand, J Mintzmeyer published a well-thought out piece on this website on August 31, 2020 noting that the container ship market was on fire. In the last week, the investing world has woken up to positive container shipping developments. The conventional wisdom says tech is everything. While I agree with its importance, shipping equities still come with their own benefits.
