Latest news with #SethKlarman
CNBC
15-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Seth Klarman's hedge fund Baupost adds a handful of value stocks, including a fintech name
Baupost Group's Seth Klarman took stakes in several underperforming stocks in the first quarter, including fintech name Fidelity National Information Services , according to a new regulatory filing with the SEC. The Boston-based hedge fund manager, who oversees roughly $28 billion in assets , built a $261 million stake in the financial services company in the first three months of 2025, making it his fifth largest holding. It could be a classic value play as Fidelity National fell 7.5% in the first quarter. The stock has since recovered some and was recently down 3% on the year. Baupost also added a $107 million stake in health insurance provider Elevance Health as well as a $71 million bet on Irish healthcare name Icon Plc in the first quarter. Elevance shares are down more than 1% in 2025, while Icon's stock has tumbled nearly 38%. Klarman, a follower of Benjamin Graham 's value investing style, has drawn comparisons to Warren Buffett for his patient, disciplined approach, leading some to dub him "The Oracle of Boston." The 67-year-old Harvard and Cornell grad published his now out-of-print investment guide, "Margin of Safety," in 1991. The book now sells for thousands of dollars online. As growth stocks and technology shares continue to lead the stock market even after a decade of outperformance, value investors like Klarman have struggled with underperformance in recent years. Baupost gained only about 4% a year since 2014, while investors have pulled roughly $7 billion from the hedge fund in the past three years, according to Bloomberg News. Baupost's top holdings at the end of March included John Malone's media conglomerate Liberty Global , Willis Towers Watson and Wesco International .
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CRH plc (CRH) has Stronger 2025 Valuation Compared to Smaller Peers
Baron Funds, an investment management company, released its 'Baron Real Estate Fund' first quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. In Q1 2025, stocks were sold due to economic growth slowdown, inflation, and policymaking issues, including Baron Real Estate Fund®, without considering value. The fund declined 6.69% (Institutional Shares) in the quarter compared to a 3.11% decline for the MSCI USA IMI Extended Real Estate Index (the MSCI Real Estate Index) and a 0.76% gain for the MSCI US REIT Index (the REIT Index). In addition, please check the fund's top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025. In its first-quarter 2025 investor letter, Baron Real Estate Fund highlighted stocks such as CRH plc (NYSE:CRH). Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, CRH plc (NYSE:CRH) is a building materials manufacturer and distributor. The one-month return of CRH plc (NYSE:CRH) was 15.01%, and its shares gained 17.60% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On May 14, 2025, CRH plc (NYSE:CRH) stock closed at $97.47 per share with a market capitalization of $65.82 billion. Baron Real Estate Fund stated the following regarding CRH plc (NYSE:CRH) in its Q1 2025 investor letter: "CRH plc (NYSE:CRH) is the largest building materials company in both North America and Europe and supplies products for construction and infrastructure projects such as roads, highways, bridges, and commercial and residential buildings. Its products include materials such as aggregates, cement, asphalt, and concrete, as well as critical utility infrastructure and outdoor living solutions. A construction worker wearing a hard hat and safety glasses at a site, carrying concrete blocks. CRH plc (NYSE:CRH) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 90 hedge fund portfolios held CRH plc (NYSE:CRH) at the end of the fourth quarter which was 80 in the previous quarter. In Q1 2025, CRH plc (NYSE:CRH) reported $6.8 billion in revenues, up 3% year-over-year. While we acknowledge the potential of CRH plc (NYSE:CRH) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the undervalued AI stock set for massive gains. In another article, we covered CRH plc (NYSE:CRH) and shared billionaire Seth Klarman's stock picks with huge upside potential. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors. READ NEXT: Michael Burry Is Selling These Stocks and A New Dawn Is Coming to US Stocks. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Seth Klarman's Strategic Moves: Fidelity National Information Services Inc. Takes Center Stage
Seth Klarman (Trades, Portfolio) recently submitted the 13F filing for the first quarter of 2025, providing insights into his investment moves during this period. Seth Klarman (Trades, Portfolio) is a value investor and Portfolio Manager of the investment partnership The Baupost Group, which he founded in 1983. The guru, who authored the $1,000 book "Margin of Safety," received an economics degree at Cornell University and an MBA at Harvard University. Seth Klarman (Trades, Portfolio) invests in a wide array of investments, ranging from fairly traditional value stocks to more esoteric investments like distressed debt, liquidations, and foreign equities or bonds. Klarman doesn't mind "doing nothing" on occasion. He is completely unperturbed by the idea of sitting on the sidelines holding cash whenever investment opportunities are scarce. Investing, he cautions, is more than just producing absolute returns. Too often investors focus on that one easy number "return" and ignore the risks incurred to generate that number. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 2 Warning Sign with WTW. Seth Klarman (Trades, Portfolio) added a total of 4 stocks, among them: The most significant addition was Fidelity National Information Services Inc (NYSE:FIS), with 3,492,947 shares, accounting for 7.49% of the portfolio and a total value of $260,850,000 million. The second largest addition to the portfolio was Elevance Health Inc (NYSE:ELV), consisting of 246,000 shares, representing approximately 3.07% of the portfolio, with a total value of $107,000,000. The third largest addition was Icon PLC (NASDAQ:ICLR), with 405,000 shares, accounting for 2.04% of the portfolio and a total value of $70,870,000. Seth Klarman (Trades, Portfolio) also increased stakes in a total of 6 stocks, among them: The most notable increase was Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), with an additional 652,000 shares, bringing the total to 2,077,988 shares. This adjustment represents a significant 45.72% increase in share count, a 2.93% impact on the current portfolio, with a total value of $324,640,000. The second largest increase was WESCO International Inc (NYSE:WCC), with an additional 569,930 shares, bringing the total to 2,005,601. This adjustment represents a significant 39.7% increase in share count, with a total value of $311,470,000. Seth Klarman (Trades, Portfolio) completely exited 3 of the holdings in the first quarter of 2025, as detailed below: Sunrise Communications AG (NASDAQ:SNRE): Seth Klarman (Trades, Portfolio) sold all 2,335,263 shares, resulting in a -2.94% impact on the portfolio. Humana Inc (NYSE:HUM): Seth Klarman (Trades, Portfolio) liquidated all 346,000 shares, causing a -2.57% impact on the portfolio. Seth Klarman (Trades, Portfolio) also reduced positions in 6 stocks. The most significant changes include: Reduced Liberty Global Ltd (NASDAQ:LBTYK) by 14,796,040 shares, resulting in a -37.5% decrease in shares and a -5.68% impact on the portfolio. The stock traded at an average price of $12.03 during the quarter and has returned -11.05% over the past 3 months and -23.44% year-to-date. Reduced Clarivate PLC (NYSE:CLVT) by 25,501,342 shares, resulting in a -70.29% reduction in shares and a -3.79% impact on the portfolio. The stock traded at an average price of $4.74 during the quarter and has returned -8.16% over the past 3 months and -11.42% year-to-date. At the first quarter of 2025, Seth Klarman (Trades, Portfolio)'s portfolio included 22 stocks, with top holdings including 14.81% in Willis Towers Watson PLC (NASDAQ:WTW), 9.33% in Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), 8.95% in WESCO International Inc (NYSE:WCC), 8.48% in Liberty Global Ltd (NASDAQ:LBTYK), and 7.49% in Fidelity National Information Services Inc (NYSE:FIS). The holdings are mainly concentrated in 9 of all the 11 industries: Communication Services, Technology, Financial Services, Industrials, Basic Materials, Consumer Cyclical, Healthcare, Consumer Defensive, and Energy. This article, generated by GuruFocus, is designed to provide general insights and is not tailored financial advice. Our commentary is rooted in historical data and analyst projections, utilizing an impartial methodology, and is not intended to serve as specific investment guidance. It does not formulate a recommendation to purchase or divest any stock and does not consider individual investment objectives or financial circumstances. Our objective is to deliver long-term, fundamental data-driven analysis. Be aware that our analysis might not incorporate the most recent, price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative information. GuruFocus holds no position in the stocks mentioned herein. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Lithia Motors, Inc. (LAD): Among Billionaire David Abrams' Stock Picks with Huge Upside Potential
We recently published a list of Billionaire David Abrams' 10 Stock Picks with Huge Upside Potential. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Lithia Motors, Inc. (NYSE:LAD) stands against other stock picks with huge upside potential. David Abrams founded Abrams Capital Management in 1999. Before forming the Boston-based investment firm, Abrams worked at Seth Klarman's Baupost Group for 10 years. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA degree in History, where he also served on the Board of Advisors of the College of Arts and Sciences. Abrams didn't have a finance background when he got his first job in New York in the early 1980s. He learned all about investing under Seth Klarman before setting out independently after a decade. He is a value investor, and in the ~12 years of his fund, he has achieved an annualized return of around 20%. His firm is like a one-man shop, which employs a small staff. Abrams Capital has 9 clients and discretionary assets under management (AUM) of $10.05 billion, as reported in the firm's Form ADV dated 13 January 2025. The last reported 13F filing for Q4 2024 included $6.22 billion in managed 13F securities and a top 10 holdings concentration of 98.7%. Abrams is known for maintaining a low public profile, but in a conversation on Columbia Business School's 'Value Investing with Legends' Podcast series, he discussed the surface of his foundational principles when it comes to his investment philosophy. He starts by looking at the risks first and foremost, without any consideration of prospective gains. This is a reminder that the future remains unpredictable, which Abrams puts in the following words: 'When you look back, there's one path that happened, but that doesn't mean that going forward there's only one path. In the future, there's multiple paths.' Abrams' portfolio reflects a balanced approach with exposure to growth sectors like Industrials and Consumer Cyclical, while also maintaining moderate allocations in established industries such as Communication Services. He also believes that declining industries can present stability because they attract limited new entrants. This also implies that high-growth sectors are, on the contrary, characterized by intense competition, which necessitates a more detailed analysis of potential competitive threats. Here's what Abrams had to say about this: 'If you have a shrinking industry and it's dying, it's like, people are not dying to get into that.' Abrams serves as a director of several private companies. He is currently on the board of MITMCO, which manages the MIT endowment. Previously, he was a trustee of Berklee College of Music for 15 years, where he chaired the investment committee. He was also the trustee of Milton Academy. To compile the list of billionaire David Abrams' 10 stock picks with huge upside potential, we sifted through Q4 2024 13F filings of Abrams Capital Management from Insider Monkey. From these filings, we checked each stock's upside potential from CNN and ranked the stocks in ascending order of this upside potential. We have also added Abrams Capital Management's stake in each stock as well as the broader hedge fund sentiment for it. Note: All data was sourced on May 8. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here). A customer in a store, examining a new vehicle on the showroom floor. Abrams Capital Management's Stake: $854.68 million Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 45 Average Upside Potential as of May 8: 30.94% Lithia Motors, Inc. (NYSE:LAD) is an automotive retailer in the US, the UK, and Canada. It operates in two segments: Vehicle Operations and Financing Operations. It sells its products and services through the Driveway and Greencars brand names through a physical location, e-commerce platforms, and finance & fleet management solutions. The company's finance operations segment operates under DFC (Driveway Finance Corp) and delivered $12.5 million in income in Q1 2025. This was an improvement from a $1.7 million loss year-over-year. Following a full year of profitability in 2024, Lithia Motors, Inc. (NYSE:LAD) anticipates a consistent earnings trajectory for DFC in 2025. During Q1, DFC originated $623 million in loans and marked a 24% sequential increase. This brought the total portfolio balance to over $4 billion. Lithia emphasizes that each loan originated by DFC contributes up to three times more profit than traditional indirect lending. Bank of America analyst John Murphy maintained his Buy rating on the stock, while increasing the price target from $410 to $460. River Road Small-Mid Cap Value Fund highlighted the company's overall resiliency and stated the following regarding Lithia Motors, Inc. (NYSE:LAD) in its Q4 2024 investor letter: 'Another top contributor during the quarter was Lithia Motors, Inc. (NYSE:LAD) one of the largest global automotive retailers operating in North America and the United Kingdom. In late June, the auto industry was impacted by a cyberattack on CDK Global's dealership management system, which runs all back-office functions at Lithia as well as over 85% of all franchised dealers in the United States. In its Q2 2024 earnings release, LAD reported a -6.4% decline in same-store sales, driven primarily by a -4.7% decline in new vehicle units as LAD was not able to process sale transactions late in the quarter due to the CDK outage. Despite lower same-store sales, LAD outperformed expectations as its cost reduction initiatives and a shift in capital allocation resulted in sequential margin improvement and a lower share count. The company achieved its $150MM in annualized cost savings target ahead of schedule and now expects to double these savings by the end of 2024 through further inventory optimization and reductions. This will result in the all-important SG&A as a percentage gross profit declining to the mid-60s range and in line with LAD's long-term target. Acquisitions have added $27B in annualized revenues since 2020, ahead of LAD's goal of adding $25B in acquired revenues by 2025. Given the current high private market multiples for auto dealerships, LAD's management has shifted its capital allocation toward share repurchases, buying back 2.9% of the company in Q2. With low net leverage of 2.3x and year-to-date free cash flow of $740MM, we expect management to continue repurchasing shares aggressively. During the quarter, we added to the position prior to its Q2 results.' Overall, LAD ranks 6th on our list of billionaire David Abrams' stock picks with huge upside potential. While we acknowledge the potential of LAD as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold great promise for delivering high returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than LAD but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL): Among Billionaire David Abrams' Stock Picks with Huge Upside Potential
We recently published a list of Billionaire David Abrams' 10 Stock Picks with Huge Upside Potential. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stands against other stock picks with huge upside potential. David Abrams founded Abrams Capital Management in 1999. Before forming the Boston-based investment firm, Abrams worked at Seth Klarman's Baupost Group for 10 years. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA degree in History, where he also served on the Board of Advisors of the College of Arts and Sciences. Abrams didn't have a finance background when he got his first job in New York in the early 1980s. He learned all about investing under Seth Klarman before setting out independently after a decade. He is a value investor, and in the ~12 years of his fund, he has achieved an annualized return of around 20%. His firm is like a one-man shop, which employs a small staff. Abrams Capital has 9 clients and discretionary assets under management (AUM) of $10.05 billion, as reported in the firm's Form ADV dated 13 January 2025. The last reported 13F filing for Q4 2024 included $6.22 billion in managed 13F securities and a top 10 holdings concentration of 98.7%. Abrams is known for maintaining a low public profile, but in a conversation on Columbia Business School's 'Value Investing with Legends' Podcast series, he discussed the surface of his foundational principles when it comes to his investment philosophy. He starts by looking at the risks first and foremost, without any consideration of prospective gains. This is a reminder that the future remains unpredictable, which Abrams puts in the following words: 'When you look back, there's one path that happened, but that doesn't mean that going forward there's only one path. In the future, there's multiple paths.' Abrams' portfolio reflects a balanced approach with exposure to growth sectors like Industrials and Consumer Cyclical, while also maintaining moderate allocations in established industries such as Communication Services. He also believes that declining industries can present stability because they attract limited new entrants. This also implies that high-growth sectors are, on the contrary, characterized by intense competition, which necessitates a more detailed analysis of potential competitive threats. Here's what Abrams had to say about this: 'If you have a shrinking industry and it's dying, it's like, people are not dying to get into that.' Abrams serves as a director of several private companies. He is currently on the board of MITMCO, which manages the MIT endowment. Previously, he was a trustee of Berklee College of Music for 15 years, where he chaired the investment committee. He was also the trustee of Milton Academy. To compile the list of billionaire David Abrams' 10 stock picks with huge upside potential, we sifted through Q4 2024 13F filings of Abrams Capital Management from Insider Monkey. From these filings, we checked each stock's upside potential from CNN and ranked the stocks in ascending order of this upside potential. We have also added Abrams Capital Management's stake in each stock as well as the broader hedge fund sentiment for it. Note: All data was sourced on May 8. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here). A user's hands typing a search query into a Google Search box, emphasizing the company's search capabilities. Abrams Capital Management's Stake: $402.10 million Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 234 Average Upside Potential as of May 8: 32.12% Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is a technology company that provides web-based search, consumer content, and advertisements through its subsidiaries. It operates through several segments, like Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets. Its Gemini AI model, which is now in version 2.0, powers major services and advances scientific breakthroughs like AlphaFold. On April 25, BMO Capital analyst Brian Pitz reiterated his bullish stance on the stock and highlighted that the AI overviews in search, which were introduced recently, are being increasingly adopted. AI overviews now reach over 1.5 billion users per month. This reflects a 50% increase in users since October 2024. Due to AI advancements in Q1 2025, the company's total revenue grew by 12% year-over-year. The launch of Gemini 2.5 also boosted this performance. It's now integrated into all 15 platforms with over 500 million users. AI tools like Gemini Pro, Flash, and open-source Gemma models drove developer growth, with AI Studio usage up 200%. Google Cloud also expanded 28% to $12.3 billion in Q1 with new AI infrastructure and tools for enterprises, such as the Agent Development Kit and Vertex AI. Oakmark Equity and Income Fund stated the following regarding Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) in its Q4 2024 investor letter: 'Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) was the top contributor during the quarter. Despite ongoing litigation with the Department of Justice in its antitrust case, the U.S.-headquartered interactive media and services company's stock price rose after posting solid third-quarter earnings. In the Search division, the company generated low-teens year-over-year revenue growth and management highlighted that they're seeing strong user engagement with their new AI Overviews feature. The biggest upside surprise came from the Cloud division, where revenue growth accelerated to 35% and margins reached a record of 17%. This performance was driven by client demand for AI Infrastructure and Generative AI Solutions as well as core Google Cloud Platform (GCP) products. We continue to believe Alphabet is a collection of great businesses that can unlock further value over the long term through its world-class AI capabilities.' Overall, GOOGL ranks 5th on our list of billionaire David Abrams' stock picks with huge upside potential. While we acknowledge the potential of GOOGL as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold great promise for delivering high returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than GOOGL but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires. Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey. 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
