📖Peter Lynch

Categories Change

🌿 Intermediate★★★★★

Reclassify your stocks regularly because a fast grower today can become a slow grower tomorrow.

💬

Companies don't stay in one category forever.

— *One Up On Wall Street*，1989

🏠 Everyday Analogy

Just as children grow and change—an active, lively child may become steady and reserved in adulthood—so too do companies. Today's high-growth stock may become tomorrow's stable blue-chip, while yesterday's star enterprise may encounter growth bottlenecks. Investors should closely observe the shifts in a company's life cycle, much like paying attention to the stages of a child's development.

📖 Core Interpretation

Company types can evolve over time; a fast-growing company may transition into a stable-growth or slow-growth entity.
💎 Key Insight：Companies evolve. A fast grower saturates its market and becomes a stalwart. A stalwart stops innovating and becomes a slow grower. A cyclical in deep recession becomes a turnaround play. Lynch emphasizes that your investment thesis must evolve with the company. Holding a stock based on an outdated category is one of the most common and costly mistakes.

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❓ Why It Matters

There is no perpetual high growth; changes in type necessitate adjustments to investment strategies.

🎯 How to Practice

Continuously monitor changes in the company's growth rate, and reassess the investment rationale when its growth profile shifts.

🎙️ Master's Voice

Asset plays are companies sitting on something valuable that Wall Street has overlooked.
Lynch found hidden value in real estate, patents, or subsidiaries that the market ignored. These were value investor's treasures.

⚔️ Practical Guide

✅ Decision Checklist

  • Are there hidden assets?
  • Has the market missed something?
  • What is the true asset value?

📋 Action Steps

  1. Look for hidden value
  2. Calculate asset values independently
  3. Find what Wall Street misses

🚨 Warning Signs

  • No real hidden value
  • Assets already priced in
  • Value traps

⚠️ Common Pitfalls

✕Do not assume growth will continue indefinitely.
✕A change in type may signal a selling opportunity.

📚 Case Studies

1
Federal Express Re-Rating (1974)
Initially viewed as a risky start-up, FedEx was later reclassified from a speculative small-cap to a leading air-freight growth company as overnight shipping demand surged.
✨ Outcome：Multiple expansion and strong capital gains for investors who recognized the category shift early.
2
Taco Bell Fast-Food Recast (1982)
Once seen as a niche regional chain, Taco Bell was reclassified from a cyclical restaurant to a scalable fast-food growth concept as franchising and national branding accelerated.
✨ Outcome：Valuation rose sharply as investors rewarded its new growth category and earnings visibility.

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