VALUE INVESTOR LIKES WESTERN UNION, PFIZER ANCHOR QUESTION OFF-CAMERA (ENGLISH) SAYING: You believe corporate profit margins are at high levels, credit conditions favorable. I guess my question is, is it really sustainable? You know, we're also heading into the fall which tends to be a dicey period for markets. We've had some ugly corrections in some. ANDY MURRAY, CO-MANAGER, BECKER VALUE EQUITY FUND (ENGLISH) SAYING: Sure. I mean the fall does tend to be a trickier time for the market and especially with QE due to end in October with a taper. So there could be volatility in store especially with geopolitical situations in the Ukraine and across the Middle East. But the fundamentals and what we look for in companies, we think the bull market is still intact for the time being. So while there might be volatility in the next six months through the fall, we believe credit conditions remain favorable despite QE easing. And with corporate profit margins at high levels, we believe that interest rates remain at low levels. It may be a normal rate of 2% rather than 4%. We believe earnings should hang in there and allow the market to continue its favorable trajectory. ANCHOR QUESTION OFF-CAMERA (ENGLISH) SAYING: So let's get to some of your stockholdings. You do like a bit of a contrarian approach to your investments. You like out of favor names. Western Union is a stock that you do hold. But when you look at its valuation, pretty much every metric - EV-EBITDA, price-to-cash - it all trails its peers. So when I look at a stock like this, which is also underperformed, what are you looking at or what are you seeing that perhaps the average investor isn't when they're looking at the numbers? ANDY MURRAY, CO-MANAGER, BECKER VALUE EQUITY FUND (ENGLISH) SAYING: So Western Union's a very interesting company. It's got 17% market share of the remittance market. And we believe that the concerns about technological disruption are slightly overplayed. So if you look at what Western Union has in its favor, it's got 500,000 agen...

• published: 10 Sep 2014
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