Ryan C. Fuhrmann, CFA, began his investment career at Northern Trust Corporation in Chicago. He is actively involved with the CFA Institute, an association of investment professionals, and has even co-authored a portion of their curriculum.   In addition to his CFA certification, he holds a degree in business from the University of Wisconsin and a MBA from the University of Texas at Austin. Ryan adheres to a value-based investing viewpoint that successful companies generate sustainable cash flow for their owners and earn returns on invested capital far in excess of those costs of capital. In his spare time, Ryan enjoys reading, traveling and catching as many live music shows and movies as possible.  

Analyst Articles

So far this year, the market (as measured by the S&P 500 Index) has rallied almost 5%. In stark contrast, this leading big-box retailer is down about 15% to start off 2011 and is trading near its lows of 2010. I can’t find any valid reason for this near-term… Read More

Perhaps the easiest way to profit from higher oil prices is to buy shares of the largest energy firms in the world. These companies are referred to as “integrated” oil and gas firms, which stems from the fact that they are involved in just about every facet of… Read More

Consumer spending has been improving for at least a year now, but you wouldn’t know that by looking at the stock price charts of the retailers across the United States. This disconnect is somewhat confusing given the holiday shopping season was strong, as was January when shoppers stayed busy grabbing… Read More

Food has a reputation as a product that is not only recession-resistant, but certifiably recession-proof. No matter the state of the economy or point we are in the business cycle, people have to eat. Of the traditional grocery chains, Kroger (NYSE: KR) is the largest player,… Read More

If you think the “lost decade” of stock returns seen in the United States since 2000 is bad, you probably haven’t been paying attention to Japan.   Japan’s stock market officially peaked on December 29, 1989, and has yet to recover more than 20 years later. But many… Read More

By most measures, the U.S. economy is in a steady recovery mode. The national unemployment rate fell to 9.4% in December and many cyclical industries, including airlines, industrial manufacturing and even automobiles are reporting improving operating trends. Home foreclosure rates continue to drop, as do credit card… Read More

Back in the 1980s, Peter Lynch, the famed head of Fidelity’s flagship Magellan fund, stumbled across an industry that he found to be undervalued and underfollowed by Wall Street. To paraphrase his analysis in his popular Beating the Street book, Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Philip Morris had nearly 50 analysts… Read More

In my recent article, “5 Stocks That Could Win in the Digital Age,” I examined five large media companies that were poised to not only survive the onslaught of the Internet and the Digital Age, but thrive. A couple of my picks in that article have more than one class… Read More

Like most value investors, I frequently find it difficult to justify “paying up” for growth. A challenging stock market during the past couple of years has provided ample opportunity to find stocks that are trading at ridiculously low levels. But now that the market has rallied strongly for nearly two… Read More