Philip Arthur Fisher
{{Short description|American stock investor}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Phil Fisher
| image = Philip Arthur Fisher.jpg
| imagesize = 125px
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1907|9|8}}
| birth_place =
| death_date = {{death date and age|2004|3|11|1907|9|8}}
| death_place =
| nationality = American
| other_names =
| occupation = Stock investor
| children = Kenneth Fisher
}}
__NOTOC__
Philip Arthur Fisher (September 8, 1907 – March 11, 2004 in San Francisco, California){{Cite web |date=2024-01-16 |title=Philip A. Fisher, 96, Is Dead; Wrote Key Investment Book - The New York Times |website=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/19/business/philip-a-fisher-96-is-dead-wrote-key-investment-book.html |access-date=2024-02-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240116093832/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/19/business/philip-a-fisher-96-is-dead-wrote-key-investment-book.html |archive-date=2024-01-16 }} was a proponent of the growth investing strategy.{{cite web | url=https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/philip-fisher.asp | title=Who Was Philip Fisher? }}
Career
Philip Fisher's career began in 1928 when he dropped out of the newly created Stanford Graduate School of Business (later he would return to be one of only three people ever to teach the investment course){{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2004/0426/142.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040621044018/http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2004/0426/142.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 21, 2004|title=Philip A. Fisher, 1907-2004 - Forbes.com|website=www.forbes.com}} to work as a securities analyst with the Anglo-London Bank in San Francisco.{{Cite web |date=2024-01-16 |title=Philip A. Fisher, 96, Is Dead; Wrote Key Investment Book - The New York Times |website=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/19/business/philip-a-fisher-96-is-dead-wrote-key-investment-book.html |access-date=2024-02-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240116093832/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/19/business/philip-a-fisher-96-is-dead-wrote-key-investment-book.html |archive-date=2024-01-16 }} He switched to a stock exchange firm for a short time before starting his own money management company, Fisher & Co., founded in 1931.{{cite web|url=http://www.investopedia.com/university/greatest/philipfisher.asp#ixzz1z8PSaozC|title=The Greatest Investors: Philip Fisher|date=1 December 2003|publisher=}}{{cite web|url=http://news.morningstar.com/classroom2/course.asp?docId=145662&CN=COM&page=1|title=Great Investors: Philip Fisher|website=news.morningstar.com|access-date=2007-04-24|archive-date=2018-09-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180921012607/http://news.morningstar.com/classroom2/course.asp?docId=145662&CN=COM&page=1|url-status=dead}} He managed the company's affairs until his retirement in 1999 at the age of 91, and is reported to have made his clients extraordinary investment gains.{{cite web|url=http://www.investopedia.com/university/greatest/philipfisher.asp#ixzz1z8Q6uauu|title=The Greatest Investors: Philip Fisher|date=1 December 2003|publisher=}}
Although he began some fifty years before the name Silicon Valley became known, he specialized in innovative companies driven by research and development. He practiced long-term investing, and strove to buy great companies at reasonable prices.{{Cite web |date=2024-01-16 |title=Philip A. Fisher, 96, Is Dead; Wrote Key Investment Book - The New York Times |website=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/19/business/philip-a-fisher-96-is-dead-wrote-key-investment-book.html |access-date=2024-02-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240116093832/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/19/business/philip-a-fisher-96-is-dead-wrote-key-investment-book.html |archive-date=2024-01-16 }} He was a very private person, giving few interviews, and was very selective about the clients he took on. He was not well known to the public until he published his first book in 1958.{{cite web|url=http://www.investopedia.com/university/greatest/philipfisher.asp#ixzz1z8SJpEji|title=The Greatest Investors: Philip Fisher|date=1 December 2003|publisher=}} At this point Fisher's popularity rose dramatically and propelled him to his now legendary status as a pioneer in the field of growth investing.{{Cite web |url=http://www.new2shares.com.au/popup.php?name=fisher |title=New2Shares - New Investors learn about the share market - New2Shares |access-date=2007-04-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070902184421/http://www.new2shares.com.au/popup.php?name=fisher |archive-date=2007-09-02 |url-status=dead }} Morningstar has called him "one of the great investors of all time". In Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, Fisher said that the best time to sell a stock was "almost never". His most famous investment was his purchase of Motorola, a company he bought in 1955 when it was a radio manufacturer, and held it until his death.{{cite web|url=http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2004/04/15/thanks-philip-fisher.aspx|title=Thanks, Philip Fisher -- The Motley Fool|first=Bill|last=Mann|date=25 June 2017|publisher=}} Fisher is remembered for using and proliferating the "scuttlebutt" or "grape vine" tool, in which he searched fastidiously for information about a company.{{cite web|url=http://www.investopedia.com/university/greatest/philipfisher.asp|title=The Greatest Investors: Philip Fisher|date=1 December 2003|publisher=}} When you scuttlebutt, you make more informed decisions due to a better basis for analysis and valuation.
In the 2018 Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting, Warren Buffett called Fisher's Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits a "very, very good book".{{cite web|title=Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting - afternoon session|url=https://buffett.cnbc.com/video/2018/05/05/afternoon-session--2018-berkshire-hathaway-annual-meeting.html|website=CNBC Warren Buffett archive|date=5 May 2018 |publisher=CNBC|accessdate=16 May 2018}} He further described how using Fisher's "scuttlebutt" technique continues to be a good way to investing, which is still used by Ted Weschler and Todd Combs at Berkshire Hathaway. John Train described Warren Buffett as 85% influenced by Benjamin Graham and 15% by Philip Fisher.{{cite news|last1=Towns|first1=Steven|title=John Train On Warren Buffett Being 85% Fisher, 15% Graham|url=https://www.valuewalk.com/2014/10/warren-buffett-85-fisher-15-graham/|accessdate=16 May 2018|publisher=Value walk|date=13 October 2014}}{{cite web|last1=Griffin|first1=Tren|title=A Dozen Things I've Learned from Philip Fisher and Walter Schloss About Investing|url=https://25iq.com/2013/10/27/a-dozen-things-ive-learned-from-philip-fisher-and-walter-schloss-about-investing/|website=25iq|date=27 October 2013 |publisher=Tren Griffin|accessdate=16 May 2018}}
Works
- Paths to Wealth through Common Stocks, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1960
- Conservative Investors Sleep Well, Harper & Row, 1975
- Developing an Investment Philosophy (Monograph), The Financial Analysts Research Foundation, 1980
- Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, Harper & Brothers; Revised edition (December 1960)
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{wikiquote}}
- [https://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2004/0426/142.html Fisher obituary by his son Kenneth L. Fisher at Forbes.com]
- [http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2004/04/15/thanks-philip-fisher.aspx Fisher obituary at Fool.com]
- [http://www.nationalreview.com/nrof_glassman/glassman200404290818.asp Learning from the Long Men], National Review Online
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fisher, Philip}}
Category:American finance and investment writers
Category:American stock traders
Category:American money managers