High Yield Reads - 5/17/14

Summary of recents posts and pieces of interest, sometimes enduring, to investors:

• Consuelo Mack interviews Chuck Akre on the importance of compounding. He uses Markel as a case study. 

• More compounding machines: Base Hit Investor mines the intersection of cheap stocks and high quality - "I prefer to find really cheap stocks, but I want them to be businesses that I think can grow intrinsic value."

• A Wealth of Common Sense of why saving trumps investing - its more exciting to focus on getting a few extra percentage points of investing returns, but you get way better total return by simply increasing the amount you save

• Abnormal Returns ponders when we see millenials get into investing

• Neil Woodford supports Astra Zeneca over Pfizer and worries about big oil dividend coverage from Royal Dutch Shell. And interestingly reveals stake in HSBC

• Forever Investor unravels Tootsie Roll, which has an unusual management

• AT&T's bid for DirecTV looks to be driven by, of all things, a need to fund its dividend going forward. That part clearly makes some sense because DirecTV will probably add around 25% to AT&T's free cash flow

• Jason Zweig advises looking outside the US for stocks 

• I have a new post on IBM's R&D - repurchases and dividends.