By Scott Murphy
Tufton Capital has been shareholders of VF Corporation (Ticker: VFC) for years, and we last featured the company and its stock in our Winter of 2016 quarterly newsletter. Since Tufton started investing in VFC in 2016, the stock has been a great performer because company management has been able to successfully address many of the “temporary” issues the company faced at the time. Good companies (and their stock prices) are always susceptible to short-term pullbacks when the news flow turns negative or when a short-term operational issue affects the revenue and earnings picture. In the summer of 2019, an inverting yield curve, fear of a weakening consumer and the prospects of a recession were enough to push shares of VFC down approximately 15%. This instance of negative market news afforded us the opportunity to add to our existing positions and establish holdings in newer accounts. With the benefit of hindsight, our timing was good, and the stock has reversed its decline and currently trades near all-time highs as we move into 2020.
