Applied Finance Capital Management

Applied Finance, a thought leader in valuation and portfolio construction, is a true “value” investment management company. Unlike the majority of firms today that focus on low multiples to define “value”, we define value as identifying companies trading below their intrinsic value. Our Valuation Driven® approach forms the foundation of our investment decisions.

Applied Finance is 100% employee owned, with the average tenure of our 10 equity partners being over 18 years. Learn more about Applied Finance.

Quantitative vs. Fundamental Analysis: Finance’s 60 Year Schism
August 24, 2021
Quantitative investment strategies have intellectually dominated the financial industry for sixty years. In practice, however, fundamental analysis offers crucial advantages. Therefore, it’s time for the two camps to overcome their differences and work together. […more]
How to Value a Value Stock – Barron’s Feature
August 24, 2021
Our Co-founder, Rafael Resendes, has been featured by Sarah Max in Barron’s discussing the history behind our flagship Applied Finance Select Fund. Sarah explains why valuation distinguishes the Select Fund from most large value funds and why in the past three years it has performed better than 96% of its peers […more]
Institutional Investor features Applied Finance Co-Founder Rafael Resendes
June 25, 2021
“We’re redefining what value is. The term has been tortured and confused with cheapness.” Mr. Resendes says. In our view, growth and value can coexist and regardless of what a price multiple/cheapness indicator might imply, high multiple companies can be undervalued in terms of their overall valuation. […more]
Intrinsic Value in Passive Indexing
June 15, 2021
While Applied Finance has long advocated for investors to consider the strategic advantages from incorporating a valuation-based discipline in portfolio construction and stock selection, this study provides compelling evidence that even passive allocations benefit when index weights are formed on intrinsic value characteristics instead of using market cap as a proxy. […more]
Quantitative Value Investing is Broken
February 17, 2021
This article first appeared on RealClearMarkets.com February 17th 2021 “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.” Arthur Schopenhauer Our last [...more]
The False Bargain of Passive Investing
July 14, 2020
Today the irony continues, as the intellectual foundations in financial economics that underpinned Bogle’s incredible success are much less robust than they appeared in the early 70’s, yet the push for passive investing is stronger and more fervent than ever. For proactive, process-oriented, intelligent advisors this will create a great opportunity to distinguish yourself from the growing herd of “commodity” advisors who preach little more than fee minimization, rather than alpha generation or negative alpha avoidance. […more]