Graham & Doddsville Fall 2018 Issue: Tweedy Browne, Greenhaven Road & More

Columbia Business School has just released the Fall 2018 issue of its Graham & Doddsville newsletter.  In it, they interview members of Tweedy, Browne Company such as Roger De Bree, Andrew Ewert, Frank Hawrylak, Jay Hill, Amelia Koh, Tom Shrager, John Spears, and Bob Wyckoff.  They also interview Scott Miller of Greenhaven Road Capital.

Additionally, the issue also includes student investment pitches such as long JD.com (JD) and long Qorvo (QRVO)


Tweedy Browne Buys Baidu, Sina, AutoZone

Tweedy recently bought some Chinese equities: search engine giant Baidu (BIDU) and Sina (SINA), which owns Weibo, a popular social media business.  They like the profitable advertising business models but have smaller position sizes due to various risks.

Domestically, Tweedy also purchased shares of AutoZone (AZO):  "If you lookover the previous 11-yearperiod, its intrinsic value grew by 16% per annum, with a significant percentage of that growth driven by share buybacks. The historical record also revealed a stable and defensive business. Same store sales at AutoZone have grown in 19 out of the last 20 years, including in 2008 and 2009.AutoZone has also historically produced high returns, with a 14% ROA (return on assets) and a roughly 30% lease adjusted ROIC (return on invested capital)."


Greenhaven Road Long Etsy, Fiat, Yelp

Greenhaven Road's founder talks about his positions in Etsy, (ETSY), Fiat Chrysler (FCAU) and Yelp (YELP). 

On Fiat, he notes: "Fiat Chrysler is reducing the low margin fleet business by getting out of sedans and focusing on SUVs, aligning themselves with customer preferences and higher margins.They are also going to either spin off or sell their parts division. If you backout the parts business, you're getting the core business for less than 3x earnings excluding net industrial cash and the parts business. That’s an attractive multiple for a growing earnings stream and a business that should remain profitable even if US new car sales decline by 30%."

Graham & Doddsville New Fall 2018 Issue

Embedded below is the new issue:



You can download a pdf copy here.

Philippe Laffont's Coatue Management Buys More Sina (SINA)

In a 13G filed with the SEC due to trading on June 1st, Philippe Laffont's hedge fund Coatue Management has increased its position in Sina (SINA). They now own 5.16% of the company with 3,187,477 shares.

Laffont's hedge fund focuses on technology, media, & telecom and you can view the rest of Coatue Management's portfolio in the new issue of our Hedge Fund Wisdom newsletter.

This is almost a 10% increase in their position size since March 31st when they owned 2,907,894 shares. Coatue isn't the only major hedge fund to have purchased shares of SINA recently either. John Thaler's JAT Capital acquired a massive SINA position as well.

Sina is a social media company based in China and needless to say is one of the hot investing trends right now. However, shares have seen heightened volatility as they've declined from a high of $147 in April to $86 per share currently.

Given the volatility in the past two weeks, it's tough to be entirely sure as to who which funds still hold a position. This stock is the definition of a 'momentum' name and it will be interesting to see who emerges as a true investor once the sell-off abates.

John Thaler's JAT Capital Bets on Social Media with Sina (SINA) Position

John Thaler's hedge fund JAT Capital has been buying shares of Sina Corp (SINA) hand over fist. Per a 13G filed with the SEC, the hedge fund has disclosed a 5.6% ownership stake in SINA with 3,384,385 shares.

JAT has doubled its position and then some in the past few weeks as they only owned 1,455,995 shares at the end of March. And before that at the end of December, they only held 513,920 shares. Over the past six months, JAT Capital has ramped up its position by almost 560%.

Social Media Investing Boom

Sina Corp is at the crossroads of two hot investing trends: social media and China. SINA is essentially the 'Twitter of China' and with the recent LinkedIn (LNKD) IPO, the social media investing boom is here. By the way, don't forget to follow @marketfolly on Twitter for intra-day commentary and further hedge fund coverage.

Per Google Finance, Sina Corp is "an online media company and MVAS provider in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the global Chinese communities. The Company provides services through five business lines, including SINA.com (online news and content), SINA Mobile (MVAS), SINA Community (Web 2.0 and social networking-based services and games), SINA.net (search and enterprise services), and SINA E-Commerce (online shopping)."

About John Thaler/JAT Capital

Before founding JAT Capital in 2007, Thaler worked at Shumway Capital Partners where he was responsible for covering technology, media and telecom and he managed the internal Omni fund. Prior to that, he worked in private equity at Spectrum Equity Investors.

Due to this experience, it should come as no surprise that Thaler employs a fundamental research process and private equity-like approach to investing with an emphasis on tech. Thaler earned his BA in Economics from the University of Chicago.

In 2008, JAT returned -5.9% (compared to -37% for the S&P) and in 2009, Thaler's fund returned 23.2% gross.