Guru Jeff Ubben (Trades, Portfolio) graduated with a bachelor's from Duke University and later received his MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Ubben managed the Fidelity Value Fund at Fidelity Investments and he also served as the managing partner of Blum Capital before co-founding ValueAct Capital in 2000. Ubben is currently the CEO and the CIO of ValueAct Capital.
ValueAct Capital is an investment firm that focuses on purchasing businesses with strategic value that have good management and value proposition that can generate cash in good times and bad times.
In the fourth quarter of 2015, Ubben added 725,000 shares of Towers Watson & Co. (TW, Financial).
In July 2015, Willis Group Holdings and Towers Watson & Co. announced plans to form an $18 billion global professional services firm by merging the two companies. As of early January, the company announced that the merger was successful and will now conduct business as Willis Towers Watson, a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company.
Towers Watson & Co. is a professional services company that helps organizations to improve their performance through effective people, managing risk, and financial management. The company also offers solutions to optimize employee benefits, talent management, and healthcare exchanges for both retired and active employees. Willis Towers Watson currently employs 39,000 employees in more than 120 countries worldwide. It currently has relationships with 85% of the U.S. Fortune 1000 companies and relationships with 90% of the Global Fortune 500 companies.
Towers Watson has a market cap of $8.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.10, an enterprise value of $8.15 billion and a P/B ratio of 2.86.
One of the company's biggest risk factors according to the company’s most recent 10 K filing was the potential failure to complete the Towers/ Willis merge which could have potentially had a negative impact on the company’s future operations. The company’s successfully merged together at the beginning of 2016, therefore eliminating one of the primary elements of risk associated with the company.
Ubben likes to purchase businesses with strategic value that have good management and value proposition that can generate cash in good times and bad times.Ă‚
Below is a Peter Lynch chart for Towers Watson & Co.
Cheers to your investment success.
