Investment Style
The stock picking strategy that Slater employed developed from the columns he wrote under the pseudonym “Capitalist” in London’s Sunday Telegraph, and which subsequently formed the basis for his “Zulu Principle” of investing. Slater’s favored type of investment was the small growth company that was undervalued by the market – a so-called hidden gem. At the core of his methodology is his focus on finding small growth stocks before they hit the big time.
The main tool, which Slater invented and popularized to find this type of stock, was his pioneering price-earnings to growth ratio, or PEG. This equation combines growth and value investing. The formula compares a company’s price-earnings ratio with its expected, or estimated, earnings per share growth rate.
Slater realized that a P/E ratio didn’t mean that a stock was expensive as long as its earnings growth was high. For example, if company’s stock was at a relatively high P/E of 30, but its earnings were expected to grow at a rate of 30%, it would have a PEG of 1, which is generally considered a very favorable value relationship. Slater pioneered the use of the PEG ratio, which today is widely used in investment analysis.