Charles Brandes quote

From Brandes on Value:

However, when it comes to future earnings growth, it is extremely difficult to project it with a high degree of confidence. Additionally, the farther out the prediction, the more likely it is that it’s going to be off-target. Building long-term forecasts of well-above-average earnings growth for companies is particularly questionable, as unforeseen competition will almost certainly arise to wrest away some of these hyperprofits, making such predictions very unreliable. Value investors believe that the best approach is to focus on the current state of the business: what it would be worth now to someone who wanted to buy the whole company. Not only is this more prudent, but it’s more grounded in sanity because you’re not trying to outforecast other investors.