During the first quarter of 2015, noted investor Ken Fisher (Trades, Portfolio) added 42 new stocks to his portfolio, according to GuruFocus Real Time Picks.
Fisher is the CEO and founder of Fisher Investments, which today manages about $54 billion in assets. In addition, Fisher has written a monthly column called “Portfolio Strategy” in Forbes for more than 30 years, making him the third-longest running columnist in Forbes’ history. He has authored 11 books since 1984; the most recent was published last month called Beat the Crowd: How You Can Out-Invest the Herd by Thinking Differently.
Investing and writing is arguably in Fisher’s blood. His father is Phil Fisher, one of the most influential investors in history, and author of Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, the first investment book to make the New York Times bestseller list.
Fisher’s largest purchase during the quarter was 1,878,933 shares of Qorvo, which traded for an average price of $71.21 during the first quarter. Qorvo is a leader is scalable and dynamic RF solutions for mobile, infrastructure, and defense. The company is a result of the merger between RFMD and TriQuint in September 2014.
Since Qorvo’s stock began trading in September, the price has declined 3% and is currently priced at $68.35. The new holding has a 0.31% portfolio weighting.
iShares MSCI Taiwan Index ETF (EWT, Financial)
Fisher also purchased 9,314,946 shares of the Taiwan Index ETF for an average price of $15.60 per share. Over the past year, the share price has increased 13%, and currently trades at $16.51. The stock has a 0.3% portfolio weight.
Verint Systems (VRNT, Financial)
Fisher’s third largest purchase was 838,020 shares of Verint Systems for an average of $57.74 per share. Verint provides solutions that enable organizations to make timely and effective decisions to improve enterprise performance. Its three business segments are Workforce Optimization, while the Video Intelligence and Communication segments serve the security intelligence market.
Over the past year, the stock price has risen 42% and now trades at $61.84. When comparing the price to the Peter Lynch earnings line, the stock is overvalued.
EBIT per share in FY 2015 was $1.33, down from $2.27 the previous year. Over the past five years, EBIT per share declined 7.22%.
The current P/E ratio is 115.5, while the P/S ratio is 3.3.
Select Medical Holdings (SEM, Financial)
Fisher also initiated a new position in Select Medical with 2,141,949 shares for an average price of $13.87 per share. The stock now has a 0.07% portfolio weighting.
The company provides long-term acute care hospital services and inpatient acute rehabilitative hospital care. The stock currently trades at $14.72 with a P/E ratio of 16.9 and P/S ratio of 0.6.
Net income in 2014 was $121 million, which has been steadily increasing over the years. In the past five years, income has grown 9.86%.
Select Medical has a dividend yield of 2.7%, while the payout ratio is 44%.
Swift Transportation (SWFT, Financial)
Fisher purchased 1,069,518 shares of Swift Transportation for an average price of $27.47 per share. The company accounts for 0.06% of the portfolio.
Swift is a multi-faceted transportation services company and operates a fleet of truckload equipment in North America. The stock currently trades at $24.36 with a P/E ratio of 21.4 and P/S ratio of 0.8.
The company’s net income struggled in 2009 and 2010, posting negative figures. Since then, net income rebounded and has increased every year, recording at $161 million in 2014.
EBIT per share in 2014 was $2.58, a slight increase from $2.51 the year before. Over the past five years, EBIT per share declined 6.38%.
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