Boyar Research Reports on Hanesbrands, Legg Mason, and Liberty Global

Barron’s recently ran a bullish story on Hanesbrands where they argued the stock could advance by 25%. The piece references extensively a recent report published by Boyar Research. Boyar was kind enough to provide our readers with this report as well as additional reports on Legg Mason and Liberty Global.

To receive these free reports, please visit:
http://boyarresearch.com/MF-Apr-2017

Boyar Research takes a private equity approach to public market investing by identifying securities trading at a substantial discount to their estimate of intrinsic or private market value. Since 2009, the average return for each company profiled in their flagship publication Asset Analysis Focus has been 83.7%, compared with an average return of 53.3% for the S&P 500.*

Hanesbrands Inc. (HBI)

- Hanesbrands, the world’s largest basic apparel company, boasts a portfolio of first-rate brands that hold the #1 or #2 market share position in underwear, intimate apparel, hosiery, and active wear in 12 countries.

- Several issues have weighed on HBI shares over the past two years, culminating in a sharp sell-off in the stock after the Company reported poor 4Q 2016 results. HBI’s innerwear segment, which comprises 43% of sales and nearly 60% of operating profit, exhibited surprising weakness during that quarter due to soft retail traffic not being fully offset by their rapidly growing online sales. However, we do not believe that this recent weakness represents a secular shift in the purchasing frequency of HBI’s products. Rather, we believe this is a temporary situation caused by a shift of customer purchasing behavior from brick-and-mortar establishments to online distribution channels.

- To see Boyar’s estimate of intrinsic value for HBI and to receive their complimentary full report, please click here


Legg Mason, Inc. (LM)

- Legg Mason, Inc. is a formidable player within the asset management industry, possessing impressive scale (~$710 billion of AUM) and a diverse line of well-established products catering to a full range of investment styles and asset classes.

- Approximately 70% of LM’s strategies are outperforming benchmarks from one-year and three-year perspectives, and the figure for the five-year and ten-year perspectives exceeds 80%.

- The Company has also reduced its shares outstanding by 40% and has raised its dividend seven times since 2010. However, LM shares have failed to achieve significant outperformance despite the Company’s strategic advances. In large part, this likely reflects the difficult fundamentals currently impacting the actively managed fund sector.

- LM is trading at approximately 0.7% of AUM, a substantial discount from how comparable firms have historically been valued in transactions.

- To see Boyar’s estimate of intrinsic value for LM and to receive their full report, please click here


Liberty Global plc (LBTYA / LBTYK)

- Liberty Global is the largest European cable systems operator.

- Liberty Global is underpenetrated in its existing network and has plans to expand its footprint by 6-7 million homes in the coming years.

- Liberty Global shares have de-rated to ~9x EV/OCF, below their longer-term average of ~10x—offering a bargain, in our view, for a high-margin, recession-resistant business best positioned to capitalize on the secular growth in internet data usage.

- To see Boyar’s estimate of intrinsic value for LBTYK and to receive their full report, please click here

Trian Partners Sells Danone & State Street, Trims Family Dollar & Ingersoll Rand Stakes: Q2 Letter

Nelson Peltz's investment firm Trian Partners recently released its second quarter letter.  In it, they detail that they sold out of their investment in Danone (DANOY) as well as State Street (STT).  Additionally, the firm mentions that it has recently trimmed its positions in Ingersoll Rand (IR) and Family Dollar (FDO).


New Mystery Investment

Peltz has built a new mystery position which he did not reveal in the letter.  He said that some of the above stakes were sold in order to partially fund their new mystery purchase.

Here's all they had to say about this new position:  It's "a company comprised of world class businesses where we see a path to superior value creation."

Andrew Ross Sorkin said that sources are pointing to Peltz acquiring a stake in DuPont (DD) back at the Delivering Alpha Conference last month, but Peltz didn't really confirm it when asked about it.

At any rate, here's their long portfolio composition by sector: 30% consumer staples, 28.1% consumer discretionary, 17.6% industrials, 13.9% financials, 10.4% basic materials, 0% other.


Other Highlights

Their Q2 letter also touches on their investments in PepsiCo (PEP) and Mondelez (MDLZ) and basically re-hash everything they laid out in their white paper on the companies which we highlighted recently.  Peltz also talked about his PEP & MDLZ stakes at the Delivering Alpha Conference too.

According to the letter, Trian also retains its positions in Lazard (LAZ), Legg Mason (LM), and Wendy's (WEN).  Their thesis on Legg Mason remains unchanged: "Better fund flows, strong free cash flow, and improving margins should allow the shares to be valued closer to peer averages."

In the second quarter, Trian's total firm assets hit an all-time peak of approximately $6.3 billion.  Net exposure finished the month at 100% net long (136.4% long and -36.4% short).

Interviews with Julian Robertson & Jim Chanos: Columbia Business School Newsletter

We wanted to highlight the latest version of Columbia Business School's newsletter: Graham & Doddsville.  In their latest edition, they publish interviews with Tiger Management's Julian Robertson and Kynikos Associates' Jim Chanos,


Below are some excerpts we found insightful from the Tiger Management founder:

Julian Robertson on his investment philosophy: "I believe that the best way to manage money is to go long and short stocks.  My theory is that if the 50 best stocks you can come up with don't outperform the 50 worst stocks you can come up with, you should be in another business ... For my shorts, I look for a bad management team, and a wildly overvalued company in an industry that is declining or misunderstood."

Robertson on evaluating an initial idea: "The first thing is, is the management decent and honest?  A lot of people don't really care about that.  The way to look into that is to do some diligence."

On qualities he looks for in seeding funds: "Competitiveness.  Is he a competitor?"  He references that he often likes athletes due to their will.

Robertson's favorite plays (aside from Google and Apple): "I love WuXi (WX) which is a Chinese-based employment agency for PHDs, primarily in the drug industry ... the company's earnings are certainly increasing beautifully at about 20% a year and it still sells at 10x earnings."



Good insight from the interview with the Kynikos founder:

Jim Chanos on his early experiences in investing and lessons learned: "I recommended a short position in Baldwin-United at $24 ... the stock promptly doubled on me.  This was a good introduction to the fact that in investing, you can be really right but temporarily quite wrong."  (He started Kynikos with $16 million, $1 million of which was his own money.)

Chanos on long versus short: "I've learned there's a big difference between a long-focused value investor and a good short-seller.  That difference is psychological and I think it falls into the realm of behavioral finance ... if you're a short-seller, that's a cacophony of negative reinforcement.  You're basically told that you're wrong in every way imaginable every day.  It takes a certain type of individual to drown that noise and negative reinforcement out and to remind oneself that their work is accurate and what they're hearing is not."

On skills essential to succeed: "Start first with the SEC filings, then go to press releases, then go to earnings calls and other research. Work your way out.  Most people work their way in."

Chanos' current positions: Short natural gas industry in the US, betting against the coal industry.  He also thinks for-profit education business is flawed.  In his Opportunity Fund, he's currently short Chinese property companies and long Macau casinos.  We've also posted some of his other short positions.



The newsletter also features write-ups from MBA students on Avon Products (AVP), Ingersoll-Rand (IR), Legg Mason (LM), and H&R Block (HRB) as well as interviews with Tom Russo and Alexander Roepers.

Embedded below is the full Graham & Doddsville Spring 2012 issue:




For more on these particular investors, we've posted up:

- Jim Chanos on short selling: the power of negative thinking

- Charlie Rose's 1998 interview with Julian Robertson

Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund: Latest Portfolio Activity

Nelson Peltz's Trian Fund Management recently filed an amended 13D with the SEC regarding shares of Tiffany & Co (TIF). Due to portfolio activity on January 20th, 2011, Trian has disclosed a 4.95% ownership stake in TIF with 6,260,809 shares.

Tiffany & Co (TIF)

This is a decrease in their position as they reported their recent sales in a Form 4 with the SEC. Peltz's firm sold TIF shares on January 18th, 19th, and 20th at weighted average prices ranging from $57.9484 to $59.2843, with the bulk of their sale coming at the latter price. In all, Peltz recently sold 600,000 shares of Tiffany & Co.

Trian originally filed its activist 13D on Tiffany back in February 2007. Their latest amended 13D contains standard boilerplate stating that they intend to continually review their investment.

Peltz's Background

Peltz is a well-known activist investor and takeover titan. Additionally, he is the former owner of Snapple and graces the Forbes' billionaire list. Interestingly enough, Peltz never received his college degree. He attended the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, but left to work in his family's business of selling food.

He attributes one of his most valuable lessons to his father, who simply said, "get sales up and keep expenses down." He has obviously incorporated this advice into his everyday work with turning around companies. In potential targets, Peltz likes companies to have the following attributes: a good franchise, low leverage, and strong free cash flow. Peltz runs Trian with his business partner, Peter May, who has been with him since the Snapple days.

Wendy's Arby's Group (WEN)

Peltz's Trian also owns a sizable position in Wendy's Arby's Group (WEN) and the fast food company has just announced that it is putting the Arby's sandwich chain up for sale. Arby's originally merged with Wendy's back in 2008. Trian owns over 24% of the company.

In other portfolio holdings, Trian owns sizable chunks of Legg Mason (LM), H.J. Heinz (HNZ), Family Dollar (FDO), and State Street (STT). Given Peltz's background, it should come as no surprise that he mainly focuses on the food industry.

Head to our hedge fund portfolio tracking to see what stocks managers have been active in lately.

Per Google Finance, Tiffany & Co is "a holding company and conducts all business through its subsidiary companies. The Company’s principal subsidiary, Tiffany and Company, is a jeweler and specialty retailer whose principal merchandise offering is fine jewelry. The Company also sells timepieces, sterling silverware, china, crystal, stationery, fragrances and accessories."

Per Yahoo Finance, Wendy's Arby's "through its subsidiaries, operates as the owner and franchisor of the Wendy's and Arby's restaurant systems."