Latest news with #Fundsmith
Globe and Mail
29-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Billionaires Philippe Laffont, Chase Coleman, Terry Smith, and Stephen Mandel All Share the Same No. 1 Holding -- and It's Not Nvidia
For many investors, earnings season is the pinnacle of each quarter. It's a six-week period that provides an under-the-hood look at how well a majority of the most-influential public businesses driving the stock market higher or lower have performed. But it can be argued that the quarterly filing of Form 13Fs with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is just as important. Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Learn More » A 13F is a required filing no later than 45 calendar days following the end to a quarter for institutional investors overseeing at least $100 million in assets under management. May 15 marked the deadline for money managers to file their 13F with the SEC. This filing details which stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) Wall Street's brightest asset managers have been buying and selling. Even though 13F data can be stale for active hedge funds, they're nevertheless insightful in helping investors weed out which stocks, industries, sectors, and trends have the attention of the world's smartest fund managers. Based on first-quarter 13Fs, an interesting quirk emerged: One stock stood out as the largest holding for billionaires Philippe Laffont of Coatue Management, Chase Coleman of Tiger Global Management, Terry Smith of Fundsmith (aka, " Britain's Warren Buffett"), and Stephen Mandel of Lone Pine Capital. Four different investing styles converge on one stock -- and it's not Nvidia With thousands of publicly traded companies and ETFs to choose from, there's a statistically small probability that four prominent billionaire money managers are going to settle on the same stock as their respective fund's top holding. Things get even weirder when you realize that all four fund managers have differing investment styles: Philippe Laffont oversees $22.7 billion at Coatue Management and is prominently known for his focus on large-cap growth stocks and Wall Street's hottest trends, such as artificial intelligence (AI). Chase Coleman is managing roughly $26.6 billion at Tiger Global and also favors growth stocks, but with more of flair for small caps. Terry Smith is guiding the investment of $22 billion in capital at Fundsmith and is known as a diehard value investor, much like Warren Buffett. Stephen Mandel is managing close to $11.6 billion at Lone Pine and tends to put his fund's capital to work in a mix of growth stocks and companies exacting turnarounds. Most investors would probably be inclined to believe that AI colossus Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the company all four billionaires have settled on as their top holding. Nvidia touches on Laffont's love for hot Wall Street trends; it's a growth stock that Coleman and Mandel can rally around; and its shares dipped to a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 19 during the stock market's first-quarter swoon, which is its cheapest forward P/E in years (i.e., Terry Smith would possibly be interested). Furthermore, Nvidia offers a seemingly sustainable moat that top-tier money managers love to put their capital behind. Its Hopper (H100) graphics processing unit (GPU) and Blackwell GPU architecture are the leading options deployed in AI-accelerated data centers. No direct AI-GPU developer has come particularly close to matching the compute abilities or innovation timeline of Nvidia. But Nvidia isn't the correct answer. However, the stock in question is most definitely "Magnificent." The No. 1 holding of four prominent billionaires has gained 1,570% since its IPO Few companies check all the right boxes for billionaires Philippe Laffont, Chase Coleman, Terry Smith, and Stephen Mandel -- but social media maven Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), which is a member of the " Magnificent Seven" alongside Nvidia, fits the mold. Based on the latest round of 13F filings, Meta was the clear No. 1 holding by market value for all four billionaires and respectively accounted for: Coatue Management: 9.55% of invested assets Tiger Global Management: 16.18% of invested assets Fundsmith: 10.19% of invested assets Lone Pine Capital: 8.75% of invested assets Since its initial public offering (IPO) in May 2012, shares of Meta Platforms have increased by 1,570%, as of this writing. These gains have been made possible by four factors, all of which have probably played at least some role in making Meta the No. 1 holding for four highly successful billionaire asset managers. The first variable working in Meta's favor is its foundational social media platforms. Collectively, the company's family of apps, which includes Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Threads, and Facebook Messenger, helped lure an average of 3.43 billion daily active people during March 2025. No other social media company comes remotely close to this figure, which affords Meta a superior level of ad-pricing power. Secondly, but building on this first point, Meta's operating performance and stock tend to ebb-and-flow with the health of the U.S. economy. Almost 98% of the company's net sales can currently be traced to advertising. Since the average U.S. economic expansion lasts considerably longer than the typical recession, Meta's ad-driven core is well-positioned to thrive over long periods. The third variable likely luring all four billionaire investors is Meta's addressable market for artificial intelligence. It's already deploying generative AI solutions into its ad platforms to allow businesses to tailor unique message(s) to users of its apps. But Meta is also investing aggressively in the future, which more than likely includes the company acting as a leading on-ramp to the metaverse -- the 3D digital world where people can interact with each other and their surroundings. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a knack for holding back on monetizing new innovations until the time is right. The fourth and final reason Philippe Laffont, Chase Coleman, Terry Smith, and Stephen Mandel likely piled into Meta stock is the company's cash-rich balance sheet. Meta ended March with north of $70 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities, and generated $24 billion in net cash from its operating activities through just the first three months of the year. It can invest in higher-growth initiatives and take risks that few other companies can match. With Meta Platforms expected to sustain a mid-teens sales growth rate, its forward P/E ratio of 22 remains quite attractive. Should you invest $1,000 in Meta Platforms right now? Before you buy stock in Meta Platforms, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Meta Platforms wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $653,389!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $830,492!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is982% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to171%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Sean Williams has positions in Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Billionaires Philippe Laffont, Chase Coleman, Terry Smith, and Stephen Mandel All Share the Same No. 1 Holding -- and It's Not Nvidia
Quarterly-filed Form 13Fs offer a way for everyday investors to track which stocks Wall Street's leading money managers purchased and sold in the latest quarter. Billionaire fund managers Philippe Laffont, Chase Coleman, Terry Smith (a.k.a., "Britain's Warren Buffett"), and Stephen Mandel all have differing investment styles. The No. 1 holding for these esteemed billionaire asset managers offers a laundry list of competitive advantages. 10 stocks we like better than Meta Platforms › For many investors, earnings season is the pinnacle of each quarter. It's a six-week period that provides an under-the-hood look at how well a majority of the most-influential public businesses driving the stock market higher or lower have performed. But it can be argued that the quarterly filing of Form 13Fs with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is just as important. A 13F is a required filing no later than 45 calendar days following the end to a quarter for institutional investors overseeing at least $100 million in assets under management. May 15 marked the deadline for money managers to file their 13F with the SEC. This filing details which stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) Wall Street's brightest asset managers have been buying and selling. Even though 13F data can be stale for active hedge funds, they're nevertheless insightful in helping investors weed out which stocks, industries, sectors, and trends have the attention of the world's smartest fund managers. Based on first-quarter 13Fs, an interesting quirk emerged: One stock stood out as the largest holding for billionaires Philippe Laffont of Coatue Management, Chase Coleman of Tiger Global Management, Terry Smith of Fundsmith (aka, "Britain's Warren Buffett"), and Stephen Mandel of Lone Pine Capital. With thousands of publicly traded companies and ETFs to choose from, there's a statistically small probability that four prominent billionaire money managers are going to settle on the same stock as their respective fund's top holding. Things get even weirder when you realize that all four fund managers have differing investment styles: Philippe Laffont oversees $22.7 billion at Coatue Management and is prominently known for his focus on large-cap growth stocks and Wall Street's hottest trends, such as artificial intelligence (AI). Chase Coleman is managing roughly $26.6 billion at Tiger Global and also favors growth stocks, but with more of flair for small caps. Terry Smith is guiding the investment of $22 billion in capital at Fundsmith and is known as a diehard value investor, much like Warren Buffett. Stephen Mandel is managing close to $11.6 billion at Lone Pine and tends to put his fund's capital to work in a mix of growth stocks and companies exacting turnarounds. Most investors would probably be inclined to believe that AI colossus Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the company all four billionaires have settled on as their top holding. Nvidia touches on Laffont's love for hot Wall Street trends; it's a growth stock that Coleman and Mandel can rally around; and its shares dipped to a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 19 during the stock market's first-quarter swoon, which is its cheapest forward P/E in years (i.e., Terry Smith would possibly be interested). Furthermore, Nvidia offers a seemingly sustainable moat that top-tier money managers love to put their capital behind. Its Hopper (H100) graphics processing unit (GPU) and Blackwell GPU architecture are the leading options deployed in AI-accelerated data centers. No direct AI-GPU developer has come particularly close to matching the compute abilities or innovation timeline of Nvidia. But Nvidia isn't the correct answer. However, the stock in question is most definitely "Magnificent." Few companies check all the right boxes for billionaires Philippe Laffont, Chase Coleman, Terry Smith, and Stephen Mandel -- but social media maven Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), which is a member of the "Magnificent Seven" alongside Nvidia, fits the mold. Based on the latest round of 13F filings, Meta was the clear No. 1 holding by market value for all four billionaires and respectively accounted for: Coatue Management: 9.55% of invested assets Tiger Global Management: 16.18% of invested assets Fundsmith: 10.19% of invested assets Lone Pine Capital: 8.75% of invested assets Since its initial public offering (IPO) in May 2012, shares of Meta Platforms have increased by 1,570%, as of this writing. These gains have been made possible by four factors, all of which have probably played at least some role in making Meta the No. 1 holding for four highly successful billionaire asset managers. The first variable working in Meta's favor is its foundational social media platforms. Collectively, the company's family of apps, which includes Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Threads, and Facebook Messenger, helped lure an average of 3.43 billion daily active people during March 2025. No other social media company comes remotely close to this figure, which affords Meta a superior level of ad-pricing power. Secondly, but building on this first point, Meta's operating performance and stock tend to ebb-and-flow with the health of the U.S. economy. Almost 98% of the company's net sales can currently be traced to advertising. Since the average U.S. economic expansion lasts considerably longer than the typical recession, Meta's ad-driven core is well-positioned to thrive over long periods. The third variable likely luring all four billionaire investors is Meta's addressable market for artificial intelligence. It's already deploying generative AI solutions into its ad platforms to allow businesses to tailor unique message(s) to users of its apps. But Meta is also investing aggressively in the future, which more than likely includes the company acting as a leading on-ramp to the metaverse -- the 3D digital world where people can interact with each other and their surroundings. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has a knack for holding back on monetizing new innovations until the time is right. The fourth and final reason Philippe Laffont, Chase Coleman, Terry Smith, and Stephen Mandel likely piled into Meta stock is the company's cash-rich balance sheet. Meta ended March with north of $70 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities, and generated $24 billion in net cash from its operating activities through just the first three months of the year. It can invest in higher-growth initiatives and take risks that few other companies can match. With Meta Platforms expected to sustain a mid-teens sales growth rate, its forward P/E ratio of 22 remains quite attractive. Before you buy stock in Meta Platforms, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Meta Platforms wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $653,389!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $830,492!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 982% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 171% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 19, 2025 Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Sean Williams has positions in Meta Platforms. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Billionaires Philippe Laffont, Chase Coleman, Terry Smith, and Stephen Mandel All Share the Same No. 1 Holding -- and It's Not Nvidia was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Billionaire Terry Smith, "the English Warren Buffett," Has 31% of His Hedge Fund's Portfolio Invested in 3 Exceptional Stocks
Terry Smith has a long track record of outperforming the market with a strategy heavily influenced by Warren Buffett. Smith is much more heavily invested in technology stocks than Buffett, and that's reflected in his top holdings. One of his longest-held investments has consistently outperformed for patient investors and can continue to do so going forward. 10 stocks we like better than Meta Platforms › If you read Fundsmith's Owner's Manual, the influence of Warren Buffett on Terry Smith's hedge fund is plainly obvious. Smith references the Oracle of Omaha's wisdom and Berkshire Hathaway's success no fewer than six times in the 17-page document. Smith has received the nickname "the English Warren Buffett" because his investment style echoes that of the great American investor. Smith follows a simple formula for buying and holding great companies. He's simply looking for "a good company with good products or services, strong market share, good profitability, cash flow and product development." Like Buffett, he's also not shy about sharing his fund's historic performance. At the top of each annual letter to shareholders, Smith shows the fund's annual and cumulative performance since its inception in 2010. Through 2024, the fund has returned 607.3% for investors. His benchmark index, the MSCI World Index, has returned a total of 403.4%. While it might not be quite as impressive as Buffett's massive outperformance of the S&P 500 during his 60 years at Berkshire Hathaway, it's still quite impressive considering Fundsmith's growing size. With a portfolio of $24 billion, Smith's focus on good companies with good products or services has led him to a concentrated portfolio. Just three companies account for 31% of the fund's investments, and they're all exceptional stocks. Smith established a position in Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) in 2018 when it was still known as Facebook, and it's been one of the fund's more controversial holdings. But Smith pointed to the financial numbers the company was reporting -- high margin, high return on capital, and high revenue growth. He also pointed out that despite growing spending on research and development and capital expenses, the company's free cash flow was still set to grow. He also liked the fact that its valuation was roughly in line with the S&P 500. Since that initial investment, Meta has appeared in the top five contributors to Fundsmith's performance in four of the last seven years. Meta's numbers still look great, too. Last quarter, it reported 16% revenue growth and expanded its operating margin to 41%. Meta's heavy spending on artificial intelligence (AI) development is weighing a bit on free cash flow, but that didn't stop it from posting its eighth straight quarter of generating over $10 billion in excess cash for shareholders. Meta's continued growth is supported by two sources of competitive advantages. First, it has dominant scale. It counted over 3.4 billion unique users across its Family of Apps in March. That makes it a universal destination for advertisers no matter what audience they're targeting. Meta's advertising capabilities are unparalleled in the industry. That's further supported by its investments in AI. Meta's algorithms make it easy for marketers to get their ads in front of the right users at the right time, and they continue to get better as Meta spends more on AI. Ad impressions increased 5% last quarter (an indication that Meta's showing more relevant and engaging content to users). Ad prices increased 10% (an indication that marketers are willing to pay for that higher engagement). Meta is one of just a handful of companies with the capacity to invest the tens of billions of dollars necessary to stay at the forefront of AI development, giving it a huge competitive advantage. Meanwhile, Meta's stock valuation is still appealing. Its forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 23 is slightly above the S&P 500, despite offering considerably higher-than-average earnings growth potential over the long run. Smith notes that Fundsmith's investment in Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) has also attracted its fair share of criticism since he first started a position in the company in 2011. Smith first bought shares of the stock for around $25. Smith has sold off shares of Microsoft since the start of 2022, cutting the fund's exposure in half. Nonetheless, it still accounts for more than 11% of his portfolio. Microsoft has transformed itself into a cloud computing and AI juggernaut in the 14 years since Smith first bought the stock for the fund. Microsoft Azure is one of the three leading public cloud platforms, and it's driven Microsoft's revenue growth. Azure revenue increased 33% year over year last quarter. AI is the most recent driving force behind Microsoft's growth. In the cloud, Azure AI services offer businesses and developers access to leading-edge foundation models and tools to create new AI-powered software. That segment accounted for nearly half of Azure's growth in the third quarter, and management said it remains capacity-constrained as demand outstrips supply. As a result, Azure revenue growth should remain at a similar pace next quarter and well into next year. Microsoft is also seeing success with its AI agent solutions under the Copilot brand. Its GitHub Copilot is an increasingly capable coder, while its Sales Agent helps chat reps close more deals. Its Copilot Studio allows businesses to build their own AI solutions based on internal data and workflows. Management counts 230,000 organizations using Copilot Studio, including 90% of the Fortune 500. That's helped push Microsoft's enterprise software business revenue higher, producing double-digit revenue growth for the mature business. Microsoft stock might be dubbed "expensive" based on its forward P/E of 32.3. However, with a business producing tens of billions in free cash flow each quarter and management's share repurchases pushing the earnings per share (EPS) even higher, investors are getting good value at this expensive price. Smith's investment in Stryker (NYSE: SYK) goes back to Fundsmith's inception. The medical device maker was one of the biggest contributors to the fund's annual performance on numerous occasions, which led Smith to make the oft-repeated remark, "So much for the theory that no one ever did badly by taking a profit." Smith has, for the most part, maintained very high exposure to Stryker over the years, and it's paid off handsomely. The stock is up 666% since Fundsmith's inception as of this writing. Recently, the stock has been hurt by fears of an economic slowdown (leading to a decline in elective surgeries) and potential cuts in Medicaid (leading to a decline in patients who can afford surgery). High import tariffs could also negatively affect its margins. But management allayed most of those fears with its first-quarter earnings report. It guided for higher sales growth of 8.5% to 9.5% for the full year. It did say tariffs will affect earnings by roughly $200 million this year, but guided for adjusted EPS between $13.20 and $13.45, up 9.3% at the midpoint. Tariffs could weigh more on the business in 2026 and beyond, though. Stryker's broad portfolio of equipment beyond orthopedics gives it a significant growth driver, especially as it has shown its ability to innovate and consistently introduce new product improvements. That's been a key competitive advantage for Stryker, but it also benefits from high switching costs, as surgeons are reluctant to adopt and learn different equipment. As a result, Stryker is mostly protected from long-term declines, even if fewer patients are having surgeries in the short term. Shares of the stock trade for about 28.3 times forward earnings. That's a fair price to pay for a business with strong competitive positioning that should enable it to expand operating margins over the long run while investing in further innovation for future revenue growth. Before you buy stock in Meta Platforms, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Meta Platforms wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $617,181!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $719,371!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 909% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 163% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of May 5, 2025 Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Adam Levy has positions in Meta Platforms and Microsoft. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Meta Platforms and Microsoft. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Billionaire Terry Smith, "the English Warren Buffett," Has 31% of His Hedge Fund's Portfolio Invested in 3 Exceptional Stocks was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Telegraph
06-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Reverse tax rises to make Britain attractive, says star fund manager
Rachel Reeves should reverse tax rises to make the UK more attractive to investors, one of the City's star fund managers has said. Terry Smith said the Chancellor must do more to incentivise people to back Britain, including lowering levies and cutting red tape. The stockpicker, who runs his investment firm Fundsmith from his home in Mauritius, also said Britain needed 'better companies' to invest in. 'There are only a handful of companies that I would regard as okay for me to invest in,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. 'There are large swathes of the UK market in things like oil and gas and banking and utilities that I just don't regard as of the quality required. 'How do you get that? You probably reverse a lot of the policies that are in place with regard to taxation and regulation. You make it easier for people to do business and you don't tax them quite as much when they do it. '(That) would be my starting parameters for it, which is almost certainly diametrically the opposite of the current policy, I guess.'
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Reverse tax rises to make Britain attractive, says star fund manager
Terry Smith has achieved returns of more than 336pc in the past decade Rachel Reeves should reverse tax rises to make the UK more attractive to investors, one of the City's star fund managers has said. Terry Smith said the Chancellor must do more to incentivise people to back Britain, including lowering levies and cutting red tape. The stockpicker, who runs his investment firm Fundsmith from his home in Mauritius, also said Britain needed 'better companies' to invest in. 'There are only a handful of companies that I would regard as okay for me to invest in,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. 'There are large swathes of the UK market in things like oil and gas and banking and utilities that I just don't regard as of the quality required. 'How do you get that? You probably reverse a lot of the policies that are in place with regard to taxation and regulation. You make it easier for people to do business and you don't tax them quite as much when they do it. '(That) would be my starting parameters for it, which is almost certainly diametrically the opposite of the current policy, I guess.' Mr Smith has achieved returns of more than 336pc in the past decade across his £25bn Fundsmith Equity fund. He remains hopeful of achieving further gains despite the volatility caused by Donald Trump's trade war. He said: 'We have been running money for 15 years, and over that period we have been successful in so far as we made a big positive return. 'Let's imagine that we managed to do that for another 15 years, which I sincerely hope that we do, and we look back and say what were the top factors in what we achieved here? 'Was it selecting good companies, was it overpaying, being steadfast and not trading too much, or was it predicting what happened with the Trump tariffs? I think it's unlikely it will be the last factor.' Mr Smith's criticism of UK tax policy comes amid mounting criticism of the Chancellor. Ms Reeves recently presided over £36bn of tax rises, including increased National Insurance contributions for employers and higher stamp duty payments. Ms Reeves has also faced calls to lower capital gains tax rates after she used her October Budget last year to raise thresholds. HMRC data show receipts fell to £13bn in the 12 months to March, down 10pc from £14.5bn in the same period last year. The Treasury was contacted for comment. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
