Sarah Mitchell
Education Editor
Investment Education Editor at 13F Insight. Breaks down complex institutional data into actionable insights for individual investors.
A note from Sarah
Hi, I'm Sarah. I spent four years at Vanguard's Investor Education team, where my whole job was making 401(k) statements feel less like tax forms and more like something a person could actually understand.
I'm here at 13F Insight to do the same thing for institutional data. If you've ever read a headline like "Berkshire Bought Apple" and thought "okay but what does that actually mean for me," that's the gap I want to close.
I'll never assume you know what a CUSIP is. I'll always tell you why a number matters before I give you the number. And if a guide of mine ever leaves you more confused than you started, that's on me — let me know and I'll rewrite it.
Articles by Sarah Mitchell (818)
- Learn
Net-Net Investing: Graham's Original Deep-Value Strategy
Net-net investing, Graham's original method, buys stocks for less than their net current asset value, effectively getting the business for free. Learn how NCAV works, why such bargains are rare today, and the value-trap risks that make diversification essential.
- Learn
Return on Equity (ROE): A Core Test of Business Quality
Return on equity measures how much profit a company earns on its owners' capital, and high, consistent ROE is a signature of business quality. Learn why quality investors prize it, what counts as good, and the leverage and buyback traps that can mislead.
- Learn
Mr. Market: Graham's Parable of Price Versus Value
Benjamin Graham's Mr. Market is a moody partner who quotes you a price every day, sometimes euphoric, sometimes despairing. Learn the parable, the price-versus-value lesson at its core, and how it explains the behavior of disciplined value managers.
- Learn
Recurring Revenue: Why Subscription Businesses Command a Premium
Two companies can sell the same dollar of product and be worth very different amounts, depending on whether that sale repeats. Learn why recurring revenue commands a premium, how retention drives the math, and why not all subscription revenue is equally sticky.
- Learn
Owner Earnings: Buffett's Truer Measure of Profit
Frustrated by misleading earnings, Warren Buffett popularized owner earnings: an estimate of the sustainable cash a business can hand its owners after staying competitive. Learn how it's built, why maintenance capital is the hard part, and how it shapes quality portfolios.
- Learn
Compounding: The Math Behind Patient, Long-Term Investing
Compounding is growth that builds on itself, and its back half dwarfs the front. Learn why the math rewards inactivity, what actually makes a business a true compounder, and why a long-held 13F position is the strategy, not staleness.
- Learn
Switching Costs: The Moat That Keeps Customers From Leaving
Switching costs keep customers from leaving even when a rival is cheaper, handing a business pricing power and recurring revenue. Learn this most durable type of economic moat and why it appears again and again in quality-focused portfolios.
- Learn
Free Cash Flow Yield: A Quality Investor's Valuation Tool
Earnings can be dressed up; free cash flow is harder to fake. Free cash flow yield measures the cash a business throws off against its price, letting you compare it like a bond. Learn why quality investors lean on it, and the traps to avoid.
- Learn
Index Inclusion and Institutional Ownership Explained
When a stock joins the S&P 500, every index fund must buy it, regardless of price. Learn how that mechanical demand reshapes ownership and float, and why a jump in institutional ownership around an inclusion date is not a vote of confidence.
- Learn
Reading 13F Holdings Alongside Short Interest
A 13F shows only long positions, leaving you blind to who's betting against a stock. Pair it with short interest and you can spot battleground names, crowded trades, and squeeze setups that neither data set reveals on its own.
- Learn
Do Stocks Rise After a 13F Is Filed? The Lag Problem
Can you profit by copying what the smart money bought? The 45-day reporting lag means you're reading stale positions, and the research on post-filing drift is sobering. Learn why filings are a research starting point, not a real-time buy list.
- Learn
Relative-Value Investing: The Flat-Weighted Value Approach
Relative-value managers don't chase the single most undervalued stock; they assemble a flat basket of names cheap versus their own history and peers. Learn how to spot the style in a 13F and why the largest position isn't the signal you think it is.
- Learn
Quality Growth vs Deep Value: Two Kinds of Value Investing
Both deep value and quality growth want to pay less than a business is worth, but they disagree on where worth comes from. Learn how to tell the two camps apart in a 13F, and why the same ticker can be a very different bet depending on who owns it.
- Learn
What Is a Margin of Safety? The Core of Value Investing
Benjamin Graham called margin of safety the three most important words in investing. It means buying below a conservative estimate of value so that ordinary errors cost your buffer, not your principal, and it leaves clear fingerprints in how value managers hold.
- Learn
Patient Investing: Time Horizon as an Edge
A longer time horizon is one of the few durable edges in markets. Here's why patience pays, how it shows up in a 13F, and why it's so rare.
- Learn
Total Shareholder Yield: Beyond the Dividend
Dividend yield is only half the story. Total shareholder yield adds buybacks — here's why it reframes how you read a fund's income and capital-return tilt.
- Learn
Mid-Cap Investing: The Overlooked Middle Ground
Between megacaps and small-caps lies the mid-cap sweet spot. Here's what mid-cap investing is, why managers favor it, and how a mid-cap 13F reads.
- Learn
Value Traps: When Cheap Stocks Stay Cheap
The biggest risk in value investing isn't overpaying — it's the value trap, a cheap stock that's cheap for a reason. Here's how to spot one in a value 13F.
- Learn
Currency Exposure: The Hidden Layer in Foreign Holdings
When a fund owns foreign stocks or ADRs, its dollar returns carry a currency effect a 13F never shows. Here's how FX exposure hides in international holdings.
- Learn
Small-Cap Investing: Reading a Small-Cap 13F
Small-cap funds fish in under-covered waters with hundreds of tiny positions. Here's what small-cap investing is and why a small-cap 13F looks so different.