The firm of Ben Graham-enthusiast Charles Brandes (Trades, Portfolio) announced on Wednesday that it started 13 positions in the second quarter, bringing its complete portfolio to 188 stocks valued around $6.3 billion.
Charles Brandes (Trades, Portfolio) became a value investor after meeting Ben Graham in the 1960s and founded Brandes Investment Partners based on his principles in 1978. Brandes still serves as portfolio manager of the Global Opportunities Value strategy and as the firm’s chairman. True to Graham, Brandes Investment Partners seeks stocks its managers believe have been favorable mispriced by the market.
At the end of the second quarter, financial services made up a third of the portfolio as its leading sector. Stocks from the health care sector formed the second-largest sector at 17.6%, and industrials followed, encompassing 15.4%.
Brandes Investment Partners’ largest new positions were YPF SA (YPF, Financial), Cal-Maine Foods Inc. (CALM, Financial), Americo Inc. (UHAL, Financial), HCA Healthcare Inc. (HCA, Financial) and Amgen Inc. (AMGN, Financial).
Brandes managers purchased 1,517,279 shares of YPF SA, which had a second-quarter average price of $24. The position reflected 0.53% of the stocks in the portfolio.
YPF SA has a market cap of $7.39 billion; its shares were traded around $18.80 Wednesday with and P/S ratio of 0.61. The trailing 12-month dividend yield of YPF SA is 0.60%. The forward dividend yield of YPF SA is 0.60%. YPF SA had an annual average earnings growth of 18.70% over the past 10 years. GuruFocus rated YPF SA the business predictability rank of 3-star.
Cal-Maine Foods Inc. (CALM, Financial)
Brandes managers purchased 299,848 shares of Cal-Maine Foods, which had a second-quarter average share price of $38. The position reflected 0.19% of the portfolio.
Cal-Maine Foods Inc. has a market cap of $1.74 billion; its shares were traded around $35.75 with and P/S ratio of 1.64.
Brandes managers purchased 32,184 shares of Amerco, which had a second-quarter average share price of $363. The position reflected 0.19% of the portfolio.
Amerco Inc. has a market cap of $7.67 billion; its shares were traded around $391.42 Wednesday with a P/E ratio of 19.25 and P/S ratio of 2.22. Amerco Inc. had annual average earnings growth of 14.2% over the past 10 years. GuruFocus rated Amerco Inc. the business predictability rank of 4.5-star.
HCA Healthcare Inc. (HCA, Financial)
Brandes managers purchased 11,059 shares of HCA Healthcare, which had a second-quarter average share price of $85.
HCA Healthcare Inc. has a market cap of $28.15 billion; its shares were traded around $77.92 Wednesday with a P/E ratio of 10.46 and P/S ratio of 0.71. HCA Healthcare Inc. had annual average earnings growth of 6.4% over the past 10 years.
Brandes managers purchased 45,736 shares of Amgen Inc., which had a second-quarter average share price of $163.
Amgen Inc. has a market cap of $126.64 billion; its shares were traded around $173.55 with a P/E ratio of 15.80 and P/S ratio of 5.57. The trailing 12-month dividend yield of Amgen Inc. is 2.49%. The forward dividend yield of Amgen Inc. is 2.65%. Amgen Inc. had annual average earnings growth of 12.8% over the past 10 years. GuruFocus rated Amgen Inc. the business predictability rank of 4.5-star.
