2 Gurus Betting Big on Panera Bread

Jim Simons and Pioneer Investments both increase their stakes

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Dec 18, 2015
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Guru Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio) graduated from MIT in 1958 and went on to pursue a Ph.D in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1961. He then went on to serve for the U.S Department of Defense as a codebreaker during the Vietnam War. After the war, Simons founded Renaissance Technologies in 1982, which he ran for 28 years before retiring in 2010. He still continues to work for the fund helping to improve the company's mathematics-based medallion system.

Simons is #32 on the Forbes 400 list with an estimated net worth of $14 billion.

In the third quarter of 2015, Simons added 96,700 shares of Panera Bread Co. Inc. (PNRA, Financial), a 144.13% increase. He now owns a total of 163,792 shares in this stock.

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Panera Bread was originally organized under the name Au Bon Pain Co. Inc., which was founded by Louis Kane and Ron Shaich in March 1981. In December 1993, Panera Bread purchased Saint Louis Bread Company, a chain of 20 bakery cafes located in the St. Louis area. Since those transactions were completed, the company has grown exponentially and today Panera Bread has a market cap of $4.83 billion.

In August 1998, the company sold the Au Bon Pain division and changed its name to Panera Bread Company. As of Sept. 29, there are 1,946 bakery cafes across 46 states, the District of Columbia and Ontario, Canada. It operates under the brand names Panera Bread, Saint Louis Bread Co, and Paradise Bakery & Cafe.

In the third quarter of 2015, Pioneer Investments added 29,772 shares of Panera Bread, a 99.49% increase in this holding. They now own a total of 59,697 shares.

Pioneer Investments was founded by Philip L. Carret in 1928. He started out investing $10,000 into common stocks and his investment grew into $8,000,000 over the course of 55 years. Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio) once said that Carret had "the best long-term investment record of anyone I know."

I like Panera Bread for a few reasons:

  • They have delicious fresh products.
  • Their stores are always extremely clean and their staff is efficient.
  • They are expanding their operating margin, which is usually a good sign.
  • Their per share revenue shows consistent growth and earnings.
  • GuruFocus ranks Panera Bread's business predictability as 5 stars with an average gain of 12.1% per year.

Below is a Peter Lynch chart for Panera Bread.

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Cheers to your investment success.