Zeke Ashton (Trades, Portfolio) maintains a modest personal portfolio, compared to most of the gurus we follow, with a quarter-over-quarter turnover rate of 35%. That is understandable. He stays busy as the managing partner of Centaur Capital Partners and manages the investments for the Centaur Value Fund. He is also manager of Tilson Dividend Fund, where his rates of return in the last three years have been 7.2% (in 2014), 16.78% (in 2013) and 17.94% (in 2012).
In the first quarter, Ashton made nine new buys. The buy with the greatest impact on Ashton’s portfolio was his acquisition of 75,000 shares of Keysight Technologies Inc (KEYS, Financial), a California-based electronics company that makes test and measurement equipment and software, for an average price of $36.04 per share. The purchase had a 3.89% impact on Ashton’s portfolio.
Keysight Technologies has a market cap of $5.55 billion and an enterprise value of $5.67 billion. It has a P/E of 20.3, a Price/Book of 5.1 and a Price/Sales of 1.9. PRIMECAP Management, David Einhorn (Trades, Portfolio), Vanguard Health Care Fund (Trades, Portfolio), Chris Davis (Trades, Portfolio), Joel Greenblatt (Trades, Portfolio), Paul Tudor Jones (Trades, Portfolio), Signature Select Canadian Fund (Trades, Portfolio) and Robert Olstein (Trades, Portfolio) have shares of Keysight Technologies in their portfolios. David Dreman (Trades, Portfolio), John Keeley (Trades, Portfolio) and Steven Cohen (Trades, Portfolio) sold their stakes in the first quarter.
Keysight announced this week that it plans to buy English wireless software firm Anite (LSE:AIE) for more than $600 million.
The new buy that had the second-greatest impact on Ashton’s portfolio was his purchase of 80,000 shares of Greenlight Capital Re Ltd (GLRE, Financial), a New York-based hedge fund that was founded by guru David Einhorn (Trades, Portfolio) in 1996, for an average price of $32.11 per share. The transaction had a 3.55% impact on Ashton’s portfolio.
Greenlight Capital has a market cap of $1.15 billion and an enterprise value of $1.17 billion. It has a P/E of 12.6, a Price/Book of 1.0 and a Price/Sales of 2.6. Chuck Royce (Trades, Portfolio), Ruane Cunniff (Trades, Portfolio), Diamond Hill Capital (Trades, Portfolio) and Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio) have shares of Greenlight in their portfolios. Paul Tudor Jones (Trades, Portfolio) sold his stake in the first quarter.
Ashton also purchased 60,000 shares of Webster Financial Corp (WBS, Financial), a Waterbury, Connecticut-based bank, for an average price of $33.59 per share. That acquisition had a 3.1% impact on his portfolio.
Webster Financial has a market cap of $3.62 billion and an enterprise value of $5.24 billion. It has a P/E of 19.2, a Price/Book of 1.7 and a Price/Sales of 4.3. Ken Fisher (Trades, Portfolio), Richard Pzena (Trades, Portfolio), David Dreman (Trades, Portfolio), Bernard Horn (Trades, Portfolio), James Barrow (Trades, Portfolio) and Paul Tudor Jones (Trades, Portfolio) have shares of Webster Financial in their portfolios. HOTCHKIS & WILEY sold its stake in the first quarter.
Ashton’s other new buys in the first quarter were Priceline Group Inc (PCLN, Financial), Owens-Illinois Inc (OI, Financial), Immersion Corp (IMMR, Financial), Acxiom Corp (ACXM), Orion Energy Systems Inc (OESX, Financial) and Hallmark Financial Services Inc (HALL, Financial).
To view the portfolios of more gurus, visit the List of Gurus page. Not a premium member of GuruFocus? Try it free for 7 days.
