Compass Capital Management is a financial advisory firm with a long-term approach. It offers a wide range of quality financial products and the advice and services of experienced financial professionals.
The fund recently disclosed an equity portfolio valued at some $480.1 million as of the end of March 2015. The equity portfolio is mainly invested in Information Technology (24%), Health Care (20%) and Consumer Staples (13%) stocks.
The three largest holdings are represented by large-cap companies. These companies are CVS Health Corporation (CVS, Financial), The Sherwin-Williams Company (SHW, Financial) and Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (TMO, Financial).
As of the end of the quarter, CVS Health Corporation (CVS, Financial) represents the firm´s largest holding in terms of value. The fund held 204,541 shares of the company valued at $21.1 million. The position represents 4.4% of the equity portfolio and decreased over the quarter by 6%. However, the stock was up by 7.81% in that time-frame. The stock was up again by more than 1%, after posting Q1 2015 adjusted earnings per share of $1.14, up by 11.8% and beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate.
Several investors reported long positions in the stock at the end of the first quarter, including Richard Pzena (Trades, Portfolio)’s Pzena Investment Management LLC which started a new position with 527,125 shares. Among the 12 new buys, we found Telefonica Brasil SA (VIV, Financial), ConocoPhillips (COP, Financial) and Edison International (EUX, Financial). We can find the complete list in a previous article.
The Sherwin-Williams Company (SHW, Financial) comes in next on the list with Compass Capital Management holding 72,421 shares, down by 6% over the quarter; the value of the stake amounts to $20.6 million, according to the latest 13F filing. The stock appreciated by 44.1% during 2014 and 8.8% in the three month period.
For that time frame, the company has posted earnings of $131.4 million, up from $115.5 million. In a per-share basis, it posted $1.38 versus $1.14 a year ago. Gross margins increased to 46.22% from 45.04% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, and EBITDA margins is higher as well, reaching 10.27%. Although this good performance, UBS downgraded two times the stock in 2015, to ‘Neutral’ from ‘Buy’ and then from “Neutral” to “Sell”. On the other hand, a few days ago, Credit Suisse boosted its price target to $305.00 from $300.00. The stock is currently trading at a 6% discount to the target price. Among other investors, Pioneer Investment Management Inc disclosed holding 38,136 shares of the company, the value of the stake amounting to $10.85 million as of the end of the first quarter.
Finally, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. (TMO, Financial), in which the fund disclosed holding 147,093 shares, up by 1% on the quarter, with the value of the stake amounting to $19.76 million. The stock returned 8.2% in the first quarter of 2015. The company operates in four business segments, but in three of them it reported disappointing sales in that period. Only the Life Sciences Solutions Segment grew by 22% year over year to $1.02 billion. As a consequence, the firm reduced its fiscal 2015 revenue guidance principally due to negative effects of the foreign currency exchange rates. Mario Gabelli (Trades, Portfolio) reported increasing the stake by 79.35% in this world leader in serving science.
Disclosure: Omar Venerio holds no position in any stocks mentioned
