Philip Fisher (September 8, 1907 – March 11, 2004) is best known as the author of Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, a guide to investing The book in now an investors’ classic and continues to remain in print ever since it was first published in 1958.

Philip Fisher began his investment career in 1928 when he dropped out of Stanford Graduate School of Business (in a bizarre twist he would later return to teach the investment course).

He started working as a securities analyst with the Anglo-London Bank in San Francisco. He would then switched to a stock exchange firm for a short time
before starting his own money management company, Fisher & Co., founded in 1931.

Philip Fisher would go on to manage the company’s affairs until his retirement in 1999 at the age of 92 and make his client’s exceptional investment returns

Philip Fisher began his investment career in 1928 when he dropped out of Stanford Graduate School of Business (in a bizarre twist he would later return to teach the investment course)

INVESTMENT STYLE

Philip Fisher specialized in innovative companies driven by research and development and was a long term growth investor. 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 until his death.

Fisher would buy promising companies with high potential for growth at reasonable prices. Fisher would have been the type of investor that would have invested heavily in Silicon Valley stocks.

Philip Fisher would also search fastidiously for information about a company.
“When you scuttlebutt, you make more informed decisions due a better basis for analysis and valuation” said Fisher.

So Philip Fisher was considered a pioneer in the field of growth investing. Morningstar has called him “one of the great investors of all time.”

When you scuttlebutt, you make more informed decisions due a better basis for analysis and valuation – Philip Fisher

LEARNING RESOURCES

Philip Fisher has been described as a “very private person”, he would rarely give interviews, and was very selective about the clients he took on.

He is best known for his book, “Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits” published in 1958 which has become a classic standard book on investing.

Philip Fisher also has the following books to his name; Conservative Investors Sleep Well, Harper & Row, 1975 and Developing an Investment Philosophy (Monograph), The Financial Analysts Research Foundation, 1980.

See also the below video, Philip Fishers’ 15 Points for Growth Stocks

The stock market is filled with individuals who know the price of everything, but the value of nothing – Philip Fisher

CONNECT WITH INVESTOR

Follow this World Top Investor via their various social media channels and read more about their background and current investment interests on their official website: