Nick Kirrage Long Standard Chartered: London Value Investor Conference 2018

We're posting up notes from the 2018 London Value Investor Conference.  Next up is Nick Kirrage of Schroders who pitched a long of Standard Chartered (LON: STAN).


Nick Kirrage's London Value Investor Conference Presentation

Deep value has had ten of the worst years of under-performance verses growth on record. Most investors are invested in franchise stocks not deep value. They are over-exposed to growth.

Long: Standard Chartered (LON: STAN):  Nick Kirrage’s partner, Kevin Murphy, pitched Standard Chartered at last year’s conference. Since then it’s down 11%. They’ve liked banking for the last five years. They’ve been early and have been adding to existing banking positions. STAN’s valuation reflects a fear of emerging markets. It’s a unique franchise in emerging markets and is one of Kirrage’s and Murphy’s largest positions.


Be sure to check out the rest of the presentations from the London Value Investor Conference 2018.

Alex Wright Long Pearson & Bunzl: London Value Investor Conference 2018

We're posting up notes from the 2018 London Value Investor Conference.  Next up is Alex Wright of Fidelity Special Situations Fund who pitched two longs: Pearson (LON:PSON) and Bunzl (LON:BNZL)


Alex Wright's London Value Investor Conference Presentation

Long: Pearson (LON:PSON)  Wright said that Pearson was the most exciting stock in his portfolio. His Special Situations Fund purchased shares in 2017, the shares are up around 35% since then. The stock performed poorly between 2015 and 2017 losing about 60% of its value. Analysts are negative on Pearson with 3 buys and 9 sells, the most sell recommendations in the FTSE 100. Low unemployment in the US has pushed college enrollments down. Also, Amazon and marketplace sellers have challenged text book publishers by providing a more effective platform for re-selling second-hand text books.

Pearson is a complex business that primarily sells text books and online resources for education. It is primarily US focused. The company is misunderstood by the market. Education is a structural growth area. Pearson has 40% market share in their core market. Education is changing from being textbook/ analogue in delivery to being online/ digital. The cost of delivering digital education is preventing competition from other players and giving Pearson a competitive advantage. They are twice the size of their nearest competitor.  Digital will go from 50% to 80%. The digital model is access not ownership, more like Spotify or Netflix. It will stop competition from course material resellers. Over time digital will reduce the cost base and create a simpler business - £300m cost savings by 2020. Pearson could become one of the highest quality companies in the FTSE 100.

Long: Bunzl (LON: BNZL):  Bunzl is a global distributor and outsourcer making things like plastic forks, coffee cups, and cleaning products. The US is their major market.  EV/ sales has fallen from 0.85 to 0.7 since 2015. Investors fear that Bunzl’s business will get disrupted by Amazon. Amazon does sell most of the products that Bunzl distributes.  Amazon won’t eat Bunzl’s lunch. Bunzl does not compete primarily on price. Their customers use them because they are a one stop shop. They supply Walmart stores in the US with till rolls, cleaning products and light bulbs. Walmart is their largest customer. Costa is another big customer who Bunzl supply with coffee cups. They are better than Amazon at delivering reliably on time. They offer their customers bespoke solutions that Amazon don’t. 

Investors have also been worried about Bunzl’s reliance on single use plastics, the negative environmental impact and the potential for regulation. Bunzl is beginning to address this issue.  Where they have the use of recycled products and wood products have led to higher profit margins.  Bunzl can grow by acquisition. Wright noted that analysts on the sell side find it hard to model businesses that grow by acquisition.


Be sure to check out the rest of the presentations from the London Value Investor Conference 2018.

Stephen Mitchell & Bryan Pilsworth Long Transcontinental & Walgreens Boots Alliance: London Value Investor Conference 2018

We're posting up notes from the 2018 London Value Investor Conference.  Next up is Stephen Mitchell and Bryan Pilsworth of Foyston, Gordon & Payne who pitched two longs: Transcontinental (TSE:TCL) and Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ:WBA).


Stephen Mitchell & Bryan Pilsworth's London Value Investor Conference Presentation

Long Transcontinental (TSE:TCL):  It's Canada’s largest printing company and an emerging N.A packager. It’s a high-quality company that is not broken but it is going through a change process.  The company is well lead by Francois Olivier (President & CEO) and Isabelle Marcoux (Chair). They have been astute at getting out of declining businesses quickly, for example, they exited the textbook market. The remainder of the printing business achieves high margins.

TCL is better and cheaper than peers. For example, it is more profitable than its competitor, Quad.  Unlike printing, packaging is a growth market. The US market is worth $25bn and is growing 2-3%per year. Transcontinental’s printing know-how is transferable to packaging. TCL entered the packaging market in 2014 and by 2017 it had acquired 7 plants. In 2018 it acquired a further 21 new plants with a US focus from Coveris America.  TCL are now No. 7 in packaging in the US. They are No. 2 in cheese packaging.P/E 11.5x (2019); EPS $2.4; EV/EBITDA 7x (2019)


Long: Walgreen Boots Alliance (NASDAQ: WBA):  The shares are cheap because it’s rumoured that Amazon is going to enter the pharmacy business.  70% of prescriptions are recurring. 85% of prescriptions are generic.  People with recurring prescriptions may chose Amazon home delivery. Pharmacies may lose foot traffic which will impact brick and mortar store sales.

Walgreens is the largest retail pharmacy, health and daily living destination across the US and Europe. Market Cap $63bn. Global sales of $118bn, over 13,200 stores in 11 countries. Over the last 10 years, sales and EPS growth of 8%. Average ROE of 16%.  Two reasons why pharmacy/ store networks have a moat against Amazon.  1. Convenience: 70% of seniors chose pharmacy over mail order due to convenience.  2. Compliance: Managed Care Operators (MCOs) need pharmacies to ensure proper patient drug usage.  So far chains have taken share at the expense of mail order and independents.

High margin beauty products provide an opportunity to improve front-of-store sales and expand margins. Customers like in-store demonstrations before purchase. On-line sales are only 8% but growing.  Walgreens already has an omni-channel offering - a multi-channel sales approach – and a mobile offering. The mobile channel has 88m users in the US. Half of digital sales come through mobile. 50% of users use an app in-store. 20% of users are 55 years or older.  PE 10.3x CY 2018; ROE 19.8% CY 2018; Net debt / EBITDA 1.5x; dividend yield 2.5%.


Be sure to check out the rest of the presentations from the London Value Investor Conference 2018.

Adrian Warner Long HCA Healthcare: London Value Investor Conference 2018

We're posting up notes from the 2018 London Value Investor Conference.  Next up is Adrian Warner of Avenir Capital who pitched long HCA Healthcare (NYSE:HCA).


Adrian Warner's London Value Investor Conference Presentation

Prior to founding Avenir Capital in 2011 Adrian Warner worked in private equity.

Long: HCA Healthcare (NYSE: HCA):  HCA is a private hospital provider in the US with 179 hospitals, 38K staff, 47K beds. It has a strong  financial track record of growing revenue and margin stability. Margins have averaged 19% for over  20 years. It has leveraged 5% annual revenue growth into 15% annual EPS growth.

The bulk of the industry is not-for-profit hospitals or state/ local govt owned. Only 20% of hospital are for-profit in the US. In terms of inpatient costs per day for-profit hospitals have 24% lower costs, than not-for-profit. HCA is the dominant hospital provider in the for-profit sector with x2 the market share of the nearest competitor, Tenet Healthcare (THC). HCA’s scale and geographic focus provide a competitive advantage. It focuses on large urban markets which allows a greater focus on high-end subscribers. It has also focused on the sunbelt states which have large elderly populations.

Its industry leading capex allows it to attract the best physician groups. Its competitive advantage is demonstrated by long-term margin superiority, 19% Vs 10% for the industry average.  The hospital sector is expected to grow at around 6% per year. Even though there is a lot of regulatory noise, the Republicans failed attempts to pass health care reform in 2017 - with a majority in both houses - shows that radical change in the sector is unlikely.

HCA has grown through acquisition. The CEO believes the pipeline for potential acquisitions is good. Weak competitors provide M&A opportunities. HCA has bought back 20% of its shares since 2013.  EBITDA 7.7x; PE 10.7x; FCF yield 5.5%.


Be sure to check out the rest of the presentations from the London Value Investor Conference 2018.

Stephen Anness Long National Oilwell Varco: London Value Investor Conference 2018

We're posting up notes from the 2018 London Value Investor Conference.  Next up is Stephen Anness of Invesco Perpetual who pitched a long of National Oilwell Varco (NYSE:NOV).


Stephen Anness' London Value Investor Conference Presentation

Oil stocks have sold off because of the fear of the challenge from electric vehicles and new supply from US shale.  Going back to the 1950s, Energy stocks are trading at a 40% discount to their average price to book value.  The death of oil has been exaggerated. Battery technology has been slow to develop and is not about to replace oil. Batteries are not good at storing energy compared to oil. Petrol is a 50x better store of energy than the best lithium-ion batteries.

Cobalt is a critical component for the cathode. Current production of 130Kt per year is sufficient for only 5.4m vehicles. If all the potential cobalt mines were opened that would allow only 12m EV vehicles in 5 years’ time.  The move to battery power creates serious security issues because 60% of the world’s supply of cobalt is located in one country, The Democratic Republic of Congo.  Because of the growing demand for cars generally, even if a quarter of those were EVs by 2025 – a high estimate - there would still be demand for a growth in ICE vehicles. ICE car sales are therefore likely to rise in the coming years.  Only 20% of oil demand comes from cars anyway. Trucks 24%; other transport (aircraft, ships) 12%; Industry 28%; power 5%.

Oil consumption is still rising whilst net reserves are falling. Increased demand will come from China, Latin America, India. Last year was the worst year for conventional oil discoveries since 1940. In the recent downturn the industry has reduced capex by about $700bn.

National Oilwell Varco is a US based company. Stephen Anness’s fund started purchasing NOV shares in late 2016. The shares trade at a similar price today.  It would be difficult to build an oil rig without using NOV products. It has 70% market share in some areas.  NOV has a strong balance sheet. They have been free cash flow positive for 14 of the last 15 years.  FCF averaged 11% per year over 15 years.  NOV is seen by analysts as an off-shore business. NOV’s off-shore revenues have collapsed from $21bn to $7bn and they have made some on-shore acquisitions. Today, two-thirds of its revenues come from on-shore. The change has not been recognised by analysts.


Be sure to check out the rest of the presentations from the London Value Investor Conference 2018.

Alvaro Guzman & Fernando Bernad Long Buenaventura: London Value Investor Conference 2018

We're posting up notes from the 2018 London Value Investor Conference.  Next up is Alvaro Guzman and Fernando Bernad of Az-Valor Asset Management who pitched a long of Buenaventura (NYSE:BVN).


Alvaro Guzman & Fernando Bernad's London Value Investor Conference Presentation

Alvaro Guzman was Francisco Parames' partner at Bestinver 2003-2014.

Long: Buenaventura (NYSE: BVN)  Mining is not a good business. ROCE is low across the cycle.  There are potentially some negative stock specific issues: Buenaventura has all its assets in Peru. It is family owned. The stock is up x4 already.  But if you are going to invest in mining copper is not a bad place to be. Population growth, urbanisation, industrialisation and growth in disposable income will lead to more demand.

Copper use in China is only 30KG/ capita Vs 100KG/ capital in the West. There is a long way to go.  Copper production is getting structurally harder. On a global basis, BVN has the 3rd largest copper mine and the 4th largest reserves. It’s a low-cost mine, open pit and highly mechanised.  A 20% stake in the Cerro Verde mine is worth the entire EV of Buenaventura. You get Buenaventura’s gold assets for free.

Guzman disagrees with Buffett’s negative view on gold as an asset for investment. Owning gold is a good insurance policy at a time when governments and institutions are trying to drive inflation higher.BVN’s management team is unusually good in the mining industry. No capital increases; they hate debt; they own more shares than anybody else; they have successfully negotiated a period of hyperinflation; they are good capital allocators.


Be sure to check out the rest of the presentations from the London Value Investor Conference 2018.

Jonathan Boyar's London Value Investor Conference Presentation 2018: AXTA, GOLF, MSGN, BEN, HHC

We're posting up notes from the 2018 London Value Investor Conference.  Next up is Jonathan Boyar of Boyar Value Group who presented five long ideas: Axalta Coating Systems (AXTA), Acushnet Holdings (GOLF), Madison Square Garden Networks (MSGN), Franklin Resources (BEN), and Howard Hughes (HHC).


Jonathan Boyar's London Value Investor Conference Presentation

Long: Axalta Coating Systems (AXTA):  Axalta is the world's 5th largest coatings company. Berkshire Hathaway own a large stake. It’s the no. 1 player in refinish (re-painting autos after accidents). Refinish accounts for 50% of their EBITDA and is the crown jewel. They have turned down two takeover offers. The company appears to be for sale, but they are waiting for the right offer. They are buying back shares. They are currently trading ats ubstantially less than an acquirer would pay at EBITDA 10x 2019. This type of company usually gets bought out for 13x to 15x.

Long: Acushnet Holdings (NYSE: GOLF) Acushnet designs, makes and sells golf products. It is a great consumer franchise. It’s not in a major index. It has minimal sell-side coverage. It generates 40% of revenues from consumer products. It’s a potential takeover target. Nike has left the golf product business.

Long: Madison Square Garden Networks (MSGN):  It’s a broadcasting company that was technically the parent from the spin out of Madison Square Garden (MSG). At the time of the spin-out it was carrying a lot of debt (5x levered). They have now reduced that to 3x. Once Disney, Fox and Comcast conclude their M&A activity one of them might be interested in bidding for Madison Square Garden Networks.  The market believes that cable operators might drop the channel. This is unlikely because sports are too important to cable subscribers and advertisers. The shares are cheap at FCF 7x.

Long: Franklin Resources (NYSE: BEN):  Franklin is an Investment management business. They are buying back a lot of stock. The family owns 40% of the company. If the shares get cheap enough the family might buy it outright.

Long: Howard Hughes Corporation (NYSE: HHC).  The real estate is difficult to value and the company is largely ignored by most investors. It is not in a major index. The CEO recently purchased a warrant for $50m that will expire worthless if the stock does not go up.


Be sure to check out the rest of the presentations from the London Value Investor Conference 2018.

Mark Pearson Long Asanuma: London Value Investor Conference 2018

We're posting up notes from the 2018 London Value Investor Conference.  Next up is Mark Pearson of Arcus Investment who pitched a long of Asanuma Corp (TYO:1852).


Mark Pearson's London Value Investor Conference Presentation

Mark Pearson co-founded Arcus Investment in 1998.Value investing in Japan has under-performed for 10 years. The coming decade is likely to be exceptionally good. Value gets stored up not destroyed.  Defensive and high-quality companies are surprisingly expensive. In his long/ short fund, the gap between expensive shorts and cheap longs is the same as it was in the internet bubble of 1999/2000.

Long: Asanuma Corp (TYO: 1852)  Asanuma is an Osaka based construction company. Construction companies in Japan have been through the wringer and have begun a tentative recovery since 2010. They are still in the early stages in terms of revenue growth.  Since 2010 Asanuma’s net debt has been transformed into net cash (16bn Yen of debt in 2010 to 27bn Yen of cash today). PE 6x. There is no analyst coverage.  The construction sector has been one of the slowest to recover in Japan. New building is still at a low level but at the very least there will be maintenance and refurbishment work.


Be sure to check out the rest of the presentations from the London Value Investor Conference 2018.

Broyhill's Recommended Reading List

Numerous successful investors have noted how important it is to constantly be reading and learning.  Warren Buffett's business partner Charlie Munger once said, "You'd be amazed at how much Warren reads - at how much I read.  My children laugh at me.  They think I'm a book with a couple of legs sticking out."


Broyhill's Book Recommendations


Recently, we came across Broyhill Asset Management's Book Club where they share their favorite books of the past year.  It's a free curated list of their top recent recommendations.  It's quite comprehensive and had many titles we'd never read or even heard of. You can click here to view Broyhill's book recommendations.

If you're looking for some good summer reads, look no further.  While investing books are obviously useful, you might be surprised what kind of lessons you can learn from biographies and other genres as well.

While we'll occasionally highlight a book in our "What We're Reading" posts, this is a large compilation of recommendations from another trusted source.  They also provide a quick blurb on why a specific book was worth reading or what they learned from it.

Check out Broyhill's book recommendations for investors

13F Filing Summary: New Hedge Fund Wisdom Issue Just Released

Want to find out what stocks top hedge funds have been buying, selling, and shorting?  Our 88-page quarterly newsletter summarizes the latest 13F filings of 25 top funds. 

The brand new Q1 issue is now available.  Subscribers please login at www.hedgefundwisdom.com to download it.


Inside The New Issue

- New Fund Added:  Lou Simpson's SQ Advisors is now included and replaces Blue Ridge Capital, which shut down.  Prior to founding SQ, Simpson managed a portfolio for Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway

- Investment Thesis Summaries of Vista Outdoor (VSTO) and Nielsen (NLSN).  Quickly get up to speed on why two managers were buying these stocks in Q1

- New Consensus Buy / Sell Lists: See the most popular stocks among top hedge funds

- Reveals Latest Portfolios of 25 Top Managers: David Tepper, Steve Mandel, Seth Klarman, Chase Coleman, Lee Cooperman and 20 other top investors (full list here)


Subscribe Below To Read It Now

You'll get immediate access to the brand new issue as well as the full archive of past issues.

1-year Subscription (4 Issues): $299.99 per year (save $60 with this option)

Quarterly Subscription: $89.99 per quarterly issue

Want to pay by check or soft dollar?  Please email us:  info (at) hedgefundwisdom (dot) com

Hedge Fund Links ~ 5/11/18

Inside the strange odyssey of hedge fund manager Eddie Lampert [Vanity Fair]

Do hedge funds profit from public information? [SSRN]

Hedge funds that do the most research will post the best returns [CNBC]

Activist ValueAct sets sights on Citigroup [WSJ]

At short selling conference, hope springs eternal [Institutional Investor]

More hedge funds closed than opened in 2017 [Bloomberg]

Third Point seeks to launch blank check company [Reuters]

Time to go long David Einhorn [Forbes]

Hedge fund manager reportedly owes $1 billion in taxes [CNBC]

A sidelined Wall St legend bets on bitcoin [New Yorker]

The last days of Whitney Tilson's hedge fund [Institutional Investor]

What We're Reading ~ 5/9/18

Factfulness: Ten reasons we're wrong about the world [Hans Rosling]

Retail: is the beauty industry 'Amazon proof?' [FT]

The hyperfragmentation of retail and why the winners are digital ad platforms [Medium]

Attack of the micro brands [Medium]

Big beer struggles to tap into shifting consumer trends [Food Dive]

Morrisons' recovery is underway but is it in the share price? [UK Value Investor]

Behind the rise of activist short sellers [AFR]

Why T. Rowe Price likes Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook [Barrons]

A seed investing framework [Medium]

The Chinese unknown that's making Africa's phones [Bloomberg]

China wants its tech firms back, are CDRs the answer? [Bloomberg]

Why there's a worldwide shortage of vanilla [The Economist]

The Canadian king of New York: inside the rise of Brookfield [Bisnow]

At Uber, new CEO shifts gears [New Yorker]

Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook's hardest year, and what comes next [Vox]

Deep fiber: the next internet battleground [Deloitte]

CRISPR: the gene-editing tool revolutionizing biomedical research [CBS News]

Where's the invisible hand when you need it? [Stanley Druckenmiller]

The importance of high standards [Medium]

Tourbillon's Jason Karp on Invest Like The Best Podcast

Jason Karp, founder of hedge fund Tourbillon Capital recently appeared on Patrick O'Shaughnessy's podcast, Invest Like The Best, and he talked about a range of investing topics.  We posted extensive notes from the conversation with the full audio below.


On The Differences Between Public and Private Investing These Days

Years ago, 40-50% of stock market volume came from fundamental allocators.  Today it's less than 10%, so 90% of trading activity is coming from passive, quant, CTAs, risk premium captures, etc.  The vast majority of trading then is not coming from people who are concerned with 'what does this company do?' etc.  This leads to multi-day or even multiyear dislocations.

"The time for convergence between cashflows and the fundamentals of a business and stock price is usually 3-5 years at worst."

He said private companies tapping venture capital can now gain massive scale (i.e. Uber) without even going public.  Over the past 5 years there's been an 'explosion' of capital via VC's etc. 

"I believe the trends of why people allocating so aggressively privates is because the public markets have gotten harder. And people don't want to deal with daily, monthly mark-to-market."

He thinks there's a lot of edge left in private equity and a "more linear relationship between effort and outcome."  While that's applicable to public market investing, your time horizon has to be around 5 years.  But if you or your investors have a shorter horizon, it's less so.


On His Investment Style

"If I can find deep value, where the cashflows are growing, which is extremely rare, then that's the best case scenario.  My primary first variable is: 'are the cashflows growing?' Because growth solves a lot of sins."  If cashflows are growing, you can be wrong on the valuation.

They'll take the price today and instead of doing a DCF, he'll do it in reverse and try to figure out what's priced in today's stock and what would have to happen for it to be worth x.

He says that with deep value stocks, most have problems.  "All the cheap stocks have things that are very, very wrong with them.  So you're inherently in an adverse selection pool to try and find the frog that you can kiss that turns into a prince, when most of them are frogs and you're going to get warts on your face.  I just think there's an easier game to play."

On general investment advice he's learned over the years: "It's very important for you to keep your consumer hat on at all times, and remember that your gut instinct about how you feel about the product and experience... is so important."  He compared it a bit to a Peter Lynch-esque approach.  It helps you spot trends much earlier.


Talking Stocks

He thinks Facebook (FB) and Alphabet (GOOG) are surprisingly cheap given how entrenched they are in your everyday life.  He says FB's Instagram specifically is going to grow like crazy with businesses.  There's highly cyclical companies that are trading at around the same valuations, which is kind of crazy.

3 types of edge in market:  information edge, which is largely gone.  Analytical edge still exists and it's based on how you process information versus others.  Structural edge is where he sees the most opportunity: being able to stomach volatility via long-term holding etc. 

"There's more opportunity than I've ever seen in my career for duration... ever."  He says there's so many stocks that screen poorly and others that screen extremely well and are getting very crowded.

He thinks quality, safe, low volatility stocks are very overextended and then there's others that are more value and a little hairier... the disconnect between fundamental value and where the price is, is the largest he's seen in his career.


Industries To Watch For The Future

Karp feels health and wellness is one of the most interesting places to be doing research both in public and private markets right now.  The megatrend here is people focusing on less processed foods, not caring about brand, mainly just wanting quality products.  He thinks the trend is here to stay because once people find out about all the chemicals in their food and how it affects test animals or humans, there's no turning back.  And a lot of it will be demographics since millennials are so young and already focused on this.

He also feels cannabis is going to be one of the biggest industries in this country in the next 5-10 years.  He says it's much more valuable to be learning about this than crypto.  Many of these stocks will go to zero but many will also go up ten-fold.  As the tipping point has hit with legalization starting to happen, he thinks there will be alpha there.


On Hiring

He says that knowledge and passion are the two most important factors in hiring people.  The first is easy to find, the second's not.  And it's the more important of the two.  You want the people working for you to actually enjoy what they do. 

The third variable is emotional intelligence and it's the hardest to find.  He thinks it's more important than IQ.  It's about the ability to control yourself, have empathy, see other points of view, and rapidly change your opinion.  In the investment industry, these are crucial. 

He hires a lot of athletes due to the competitive nature (something we've heard from Julian Robertson before), and people from military backgrounds due to training.  He's also found mothers to be spectacular due to their perspective on managing people and conflicts.  Instead of looking at a resume, look at what a person has been through or actually done.


Embedded below is the podcast interview with Tourbillon's Jason Karp:



And if you haven't already, be sure to check out Patrick O'Shaughnessy's podcast: Invest Like The Best.

Third Point's Q1 Letter: United Technologies, DowDuPont, Lennar & Dover

Dan Loeb's hedge fund firm Third Point is out with its first quarter letter.  During Q1, they returned -0.6%.  The letter talks about their new stake in United Technologies (UTX). 

They're pushing for a split-up into 3 companies: Otis, CCS, and an aerospace company.  They see this driving $20 billion of excess value (>20% of market cap) due to the fact that all three standalone companies should trade at higher multiples based on equivalent peers. 

They write, "Otis peers Kone and Schindler trade on average at 15x forward EV/EBITDA.  CCS peers, Allegion, Ingersoll-Rand, and Lennox, trade on average at 13x forward EV/EBITDA.  The remaining aerospace company would be the only liquid, US large-cap aerospace supplier other than TransDigm, which trades at 15x forward EV/EBITDA."  They also note though that management seems 'less open' to a three-way split than shareholders might want. 

Third Point also provide updates on their positions in DowDuPont (DWDP) and Lennar (LEN).  The former is one of their largest positions and they see a discount to intrinsic value that has widened.  The latter they view as the best homebuilder in the industry with the best set of veterans.  They also updated their Dover (DOV) position, noting the event-driven nature of the company now. 

You can read Third Point's full Q1 2018 letter embedded below:



You can download a .pdf copy here.

New Graham & Doddsville Issue: Mauboussin, Greenwald & More

A new issue of Columbia Business School's Graham & Doddsville newsletter has been released.  It features interviews with Professor Bruce Greenwald as he retires, and Mark Cooper of First Eagle Management.  It also features a conversation with Michael Mauboussin of Blue Mountain Capital and Tom Digenan of UBS Asset Management.

Lastly, it also interviews upcoming fund launch: Rishi Renjen's ROAM Global.  Prior to launching, he worked at Maverick Capital, TPG-Axon, and Glenview Capital.

This time around, Graham & Doddsville also includes student investment pitches from the Pershing Square Challenge. 

1st place this year was a short of Stericycle (SRCL), 2nd place was a short of Credit Acceptance (CACC), and 3rd place was a short of Spotify (SPOT).  The issue also showcases pitches on short CH Robinson (CHRW), short Harvey Norman, and long Digicel credit.

Embedded below is the latest issue of Graham & Doddsville:



You can download a .pdf copy here.

And if you missed it, be sure to check out the recent past issue that includes interviews with Lee Cooperman, David Poppe, and John Harris.

Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger & Bill Gates Interview

Today on CNBC, Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett was interviewed by Becky Quick and talked about a range of topics.  Charlie Munger and Bill Gates later joined the conversation.  Here's some takeaways and quotes:


Warren Buffett's Thoughts

On the market: Stocks aren't in a bubble now.  Though said some private deal valuations are getting high and it's harder to find bargains these days.

On the economy:  Thinks the economy has picked up steam. "Yeah, I see a lot of numbers (from all BRK's businesses).  Business is generally pretty strong."  He cited railcar loadings, etc.  Also notes you've seen some inflation.

Says he thinks it's hard for unemployment to really go much lower as they have a ton of jobs available.  "If a resource is scarce, prices go up."  Says certain job lines are much harder to fill these days (construction cited specifically).

On potential trade wars:   "I don't think we will have trade wars of significance."  He thinks there will be trade movements though.  Says a trade war with China would be negative for all involved as they have a common interest.

On Amazon / Jeff Bezos:  Still laments not buying it in the past, says what Bezos has done is incredible.

On moats: Cited iPhones, Costco, and Elmer's glue as examples

On Apple: Says he doesn't have to do anything because the company will buyback so many shares, so his ownership stake will go up naturally.  He recently bought a ton more AAPL shares.  Said he currently owns around 5% of the company but he'd like to own 100% of it.  The consumer behavior was the main driver behind his ownership, as the device has woven itself into consumer's daily lives and minds, and it's a very useful product.

On owning banks:  Has owned one in the past and loves the banking business but doesn't want to now because of the bank holding co act.  Says Wells Fargo (WFC) was slow to act in addressing bad actions but still has a fundamentally solid business.

On bitcoin:  Compared it to the tulip bubble years ago.  Says it's a non-productive asset and just sits there.

On autonomous vehicles: 'Net it will be bad for the car insurance industry if autonomous vehicles become the norm.'  It will be very hard to pick winners in 5 years.

On reading he recommends, Buffett again pointed to Chapter 8 of The Intelligent Investor.  But this time around he also recommended Chapter 4 of Steven Pinker's new book, Enlightenment Now.

Ends his interview by reiterating: "It's very important in life to associate yourself with people that are better than you."


Charlie Munger's Thoughts

On the biggest thing he and Buffett have disagreed on:  Munger wanted to buy the French stake in Costco.  Buffett didn't and says he should have.  "Charlie really wants to wait for the fat pitch."

Munger said, "There's a million ways to be irrational." And while Berkshire makes mistakes, they make them far less frequently than others and he thinks that's their main advantage.

Munger noted: "The Munger family is invested in China substantially.  Since about 14 years ago, and I did it because I respected the man that was going to do the investing (Li Lu) and it looked undervalued and the companies looked very strong."  Today, he says the best companies in China are still cheaper than the best companies in the US.  "I don't think it'd be all that hard for people to find 4 or 5 companies in China to invest in."

He also said he wished Berkshire owned more of Apple.  He likes that it's reasonably priced and strong, a 'very desireable combination' as well as 'very intelligent management.'

On bitcoin, Munger called it worthless artificial gold.  "It's a scumball activity."

On potential trade wars with China: "It would be insane for them not to work together."

On what he's been reading recently:  A book by a Chinese economist, though he didn't mention the name specifically.


Bill Gates' Thoughts

He said that "T-bills set the rules" and he pointed out that since the 10-year yields 3%, you've got that hurdle to get over by taking more risk.  He says asset class returns will be lower over the next 10 years.

On bitcoin: There's some really good technology as far as sharing databases etc, but the coin itself is a speculative thing.  He received some for his birthday a while back but sold it, so doesn't own it now.  Called it a greater fool investment, and said he'd short it if there was an easy way to do so.

Gates says there are tech stocks that are undervalued, but you're going to get very high variance as the winner in some markets gets a high share of the profit pool.

He owns a ton of Microsoft (MSFT) obviously, but revealed he has a 'fantasy stock portfolio' of companies he thinks will do well but doesn't own.  "The top tech companies have a very strong share of the profit pool right now."  He obviously declined to reveal names.

Gates also echoed Munger's China sentiment that it looked attractive.

On tech and data privacy, thinks regulation is inevitable.  But the big companies will handle that.

On Tesla (TSLA): thinks they have a great product but a very high valuation and a lot of competition coming.  Says autonomous and electric vehicles are coming simultaneously and thinks 15 years from now things will be very different.

On what he's been reading recently:  Hans Rosling's book Factfulness.  Says it helps you think about a lot of different things in the world.

Notes From Sohn New York Investment Conference 2018: Einhorn, Robbins, Gurley & More

The annual Sohn New York Investment Conference recently took place and featured top hedge fund managers sharing their latest ideas to benefit charity.  Below are notes from the event.  We've also posted up notes from the emerging manager panel, Next Wave Sohn New York.


 Notes From Sohn New York Investment Conference 2018


John Khoury, Long Pond Capital: Long D.R. Horton (DHI).  He runs a $2.5B long/short fund mainly in Real Estate.  Pitch is DHI is getting asset light by only building on developed lots instead of buying raw land, getting approvals, and building the infrastructure.  So it's an asset-light model with less debt and better ROIC, so deserves better multiple.  They are the biggest US builder based on number of units - average price is $300k, basically entry-level homes, and they built 50k last year.  What about interest rates? Says that is the biggest fear now, but rates could go up 100 bp and housing would still be affordable in relation to current income and net worth of households.  Key is rates would be coming up from such a low place. Says record low inventories.  Expects $5.50 EPS by 2020, uses 13x to get $71.50, or 63% upside.


Li Ran, Half Sky Capital.  Long: GrubHub (GRUB).  2014 IPO.  Felt like the companion pitch to the TKWY pitch in the morning at Next Wave Sohn from Alex Captain of Cat Rock Capital.  Large addressable market, positive unit economics, proof of concept, and support from restaurants.  Painted a pretty rosy picture, didn't really touch on the bear case.  She says $70B TAM on 35% penetration on 110M diners (they have 14.5M now, and many analysts think they are close to fully penetrated in the US.)  She has done surveys of restaurant managers that expect GRUB to keep growing.Price Target $160, on 15x EV/EBITDA, up 60% from here.  Previously worked at Lone Pine Capital.


Jeffrey Gundlach, DoubleLine Capital: Long XOP ETF, short Facebook (FB).  His FB pitch seemed to mainly be based on technicals.  He used the fact that FB is below the 200 day moving average at the time as his reason to be short.  He also cited 2 examples of government regulation hurting stocks - one was tobacco. (He didn't mention other examples where stocks were stronger yet, such as credit cards, banks, etc.).  He pointed out a 'head and shoulders' formation on the FB chart, which is usually bearish.       


Chamath Palihapitiya, Social Capital: Long Box (BOX).  He said BOX was an AI play, and he also said you should have an AI basket of AMZN, GOOG, BOX.  He was less enthusiastic about NVDA, because he believed GOOG's TPUs are "ten times better."  On BOX, he said it goes up 10x in 10 years, even though it has 70% of Fortune 500 already.  Core business stable, adding SaaS revenue.  Big Data/AI play, and 4.3x revenue. Only growing 20% CAGR, yet he expects multiple expansion.


Glen Kacher, Light Street Capital: Long Palo Alto Networks (PANW).  Tiger Cub 1993-1997.  He was up 11% through the end of Q1 in 2018.  He talked about cyber warfare, and how firewalls weren't enough and how you need a platform approach.  $19B market cap, biggest in Cyber, ARPU 4x the competition, which is CHKP, CSCO, FTNT, JNPR and others. Compares their attempt to shift to subscription services that ADBE has done (though he didn't mention the difference is that ADBE didn't sell hardware).  He gets a $360 price target using 10.6x Revenue.  He admits products slipped in 2017, but thinks it comes in 2018.


Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, New York Times op-ed contributor, visiting lecturer at The Wharton School and former Google data scientist.  Gave an interesting preview of his book, Everybody Lies.  Basically, a lot of people have secrets and tendencies, even though they don't admit it, but you can find out because of Google searches, which he calls "Digital Truth Serum."


Scott Ferguson, Sachem Head Capital: Long Whitbread (WTB).  Basically "Dunkin Donuts of the UK, with a budget hotel thrown in.  "Hasn't done well, they have been stuck in it for a year, he says the bad news is now priced in.


John Pfeffer, Pfeffer Capital: Long bitcoin.  The other alternative coins aren't great, stick with best of breed.  The pitch was basically that bitcoin is gold 2.0, similar to what the Winklevoss twins have argued.  Used a lot of formulas in the pitch.  Ultimately says could be a 1% chance that XBT goes to $700k if it's used as a Reserve Currency.  Maybe it's only Gold 2.0, then it's worth about $90-180k per coin, up from about $9k today.


Bill Gurley, Benchmark, with Chamath Palihapitiya:  Interesting back and forth between two talented VCs.  Gurley contemplates the idea of "peak car" ownership in the US.  3.2 cars per household now, could never get higher.  Says Uber is getting turned around, culture improving.  Slack, AirBnB are big ones to watch when they IPO.  He says autonomy could be 2 decades away, because the US is such a litigious society.  FB- he would be long, says this is not an existential threat.  AMZN- "of course, long."  GOOG - he's concerned - they have problems, although he wouldn't short (He also told an amusing story how they turned them down for VC money).  TSLA- says Musk is making it too risky to own the stock.  SoFi- "when you are handing out money there is no barrier to entry and the guy doing the highest volume usually has the loosest rule set."  HTZ- he would be short, even against Icahn.  Several issues:"disruption and debt are bad sisters," 5-15x levered, depending on whether you count the car loans.  Ride sharing is a huge substitute for rental cars in many US cities.  Systematic used car problem - if the macro gets hard at all, this business has zero flexibility due to the debt load.


Larry Robbins, Glenview Capital: Long ESRX, MCK, CVS.  Says AMZN is not going to get into their business, the PBMs aren't really gouging, they only make pennies, and drug prices have actually dropped over the last 4 years.  Says they trade at historically low multiples.  Says MCK goes up 91% in 2-3 years after the spin, and share buyback. ESRX deal with CI will happen.


Sohn Idea Contest Winner, Andrew Walker: Long LQM.  Mispricing due to taxable spin, incentive to keep price low.  This is a popular HF play right now.


Nathaniel August, Mangrove Partners: short EROS."Netflix of India" maker of Bollywood films.  He did a long presentation which focused on how he argues the company is cheating on their accounting every way possible.  He's being sued by the company.  Small cap, doesn't trade much.


David Einhorn, Greenlight Capital: Short Assured Guaranty (AGO).  Bond insurer, beset by Puerto Rico bonds and decline in overall muni bond issuance.  Business is also levered, with smaller room for error.


Be sure to also check out notes from the emerging manager segment of the conference: notes from Next Wave Sohn New York.

Notes From Next Wave Sohn New York Investment Conference 2018

The annual Sohn New York Investment Conference recently took place and featured hedge fund managers sharing their latest investment ideas to benefit charity.  Before the main event, emerging managers shared their ideas in the Next Wave Sohn portion of the event.  Here's notes from these pitches.  You can also view notes from the main Sohn New York Conference here too.

Next Wave Sohn New York Notes 2018

Dylan Adelman, 2017 Sohn Investment Idea Contest Winner, Student at Penn.  Long Vostok New Ventures. (VNV) Listed in Stockholm.  Russian classified business.  He compared it to Craigslist, which has 90% operating margins and only 40 employees, making $500 million/year in profit.  Basically, "the Craigslist of Russia, but run to maximize profit.


Alexander Captain, Cat Rock Capital Management: Long Takeaway (TKWY), listed in Amsterdam.  "The Grubhub of Central Europe."  He said they looked for stocks that could go up 10x in 10 years, such as AMZN that when up 23x, and MA, PCLN, which went up more than 10x each.  Key was three factors: a big market, obvious shift, and winner-take-most economics.  He says Online Food Delivery fits these criteria.  $50B of a $2T food market, so huge market.  Ecommerce for restaurants is an obvious shift, as 80% of orders are still done over the phone now.


Tim Garry, Pelorus Jack Capital: He is predicting a price momentum / Beta crash.  Says 40% of market was driven by fundamental investors 10 years ago, and now it's only 11%. Relation to style factors such as momentum is more important than Beta.  Says there is a big spread between growth and value, and now quants are all in growth trades.  He uses DeMark indicators and was mixing up technical analysis and quant talk.  "High beta stocks underperform low beta."  Sounded like his pitch was almost be long dividend stocks and short growth stocks (back in 2016 for 2 months, growth stocks dropped 5% two months in a row).


Rashmi Kwatra, Sixteenth Street Capital:  Long Bank of Bangladesh (BRAC).  She runs a concentrated long only fund investing in Southeast Asia.  Bangladesh has a population of 163M, is located between India and China, entire country is the size of New York State.  Similar thesis for region - underbanked, rapid growth, etc


Oleg Nodelman, EcoR1 Capital: Long Ascendis Pharma (ASND).  Biotech PM, cancer survivor, claims to be "value oriented" Biotech PM, yet less than 10% of biotechs are profitable, and he points out that there is a 90% clinical failure rate.  ASND is a "platform company" which is in Phase 3 trials of a new Growth Hormone Deficiency treatment that only needs once a week shots instead of current treatments which are daily shots.   He does the math and gets $1.5B peak revenue based on $35k/year and 50% penetration, 8 years duration.  Says Big Pharma will buy them out if they are approved, and could pay 4x revenue to get $129/share. They also have Achondroplasia treatment (this is what Verne Troyer had) which he says is worth $111, and something called PTH worth $49.  so he argues you could double your money on this one.


Scott Goodwin, Diameter Capital Partners: Short Rallye, the owner of a levered French grocery called Casino, buy the 3 year CDS.  He runs a $1.7B credit fund, long/short.  This play has all the elements they look for: business with complexity, challenged industry, and similar playbook in other situations.  "We want equity risk masquerading as credit risk." Grocers are already under attack, just like they are in the US, but if macro turns down at all, there is no margin for error here at all.


Be sure to also check out notes from the main Sohn New York Conference as well, featuring Bill Gurley, David Einhorn, Larry Robbins and more.

The China Hustle: Trailer & Documentary

The China Hustle is a recently released documentary from Academy Award winner Alex Gibney and Academy Award nominees Frank Marshall and Jed Rothstein and the producers of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.  The China Hustle features the story of the wave of Chinese reverse mergers that swept the market a few years ago.

It details a play by play of the various frauds that took place and the short sellers involved in discovering and drawing attention to them.  Featured in the documentary are the likes of Jim Chanos of Kynikos Associates, Carson Block of Muddy Waters Research, Soren Aandahl of Glaucus Research and more.

The trailer is embedded below with a preview. 

The China Hustle Documentary Trailer



The documentary is out now.  You don't even have to go to a movie theater to watch it.  It's on demand via various platforms and you can get it on Amazon Video here for only $6.99.

Eminence Capital Boosts Formula One Position

Ricky Sandler's hedge fund firm Eminence Capital has filed a 13G with the SEC regarding shares of Formula One (FWONK).  Per the filing, Eminence now owns 5.4% of the company with over 10.86 million shares. 

This is up from the 8.58 million shares they owned at the end of 2017.  The filing was made due to activity on March 19th.

Per Liberty Media's site, Formula One is "an iconic global motorsports business."

We've also highlighted another stock that Eminence Capital has been buying recently.