Tom Russo

Gardner Russo & Gardner

Last Update: 2013-05-14

Number of Stocks: 255
Number of New Stocks: 34

Total Value: $8,548 Mil
Q/Q Turnover: 6%

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Tom Russo's Profile & Performance

Profile

Mr. Russo oversees $3 billion as general partner of the Semper Vic Partners and Semper Vic Partners (Q.P.) limited partnerships along with overseeing funds in discretionary, individually managed accounts for individuals, trusts and endowments. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College (BA, 1977) and Stanford Business and Law Schools (MBA/JD, 1984).

According to Mr. Russo himself, his fund is relatively concentrated. Therefore, the large positions we reported here are his. Others may be from his partners.

Investing Philosophy

Thomas A. Russo joined Gardner Russo & Gardner as a partner in 1989. His investment philosophy emphasizes return on invested capital, principally through equity investments. His approach to stock selection stresses two main points: value and price. He looks for companies with strong cash-flow characteristics, where large amounts of "free" cash flow are generated. Portfolio companies tend to have strong balance sheets and a history of producing high rates of return on their assets.

Total Holding History

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Performance of Semper Vic Partners

Year	Return (%)	S&P500 (%)	Excess Gain (%)
2012	24.4	15.4	9.0
2011	6.7	2.08	4.6
2010	21.5	15.06	6.4
3-Year Cumulative	61.3 (17.3%/year)	35.5 (10.7%/year)	25.8 (6.6%/year)
2009	25.8	26.46	-0.7
2008	-31.5	-37	5.5
5-Year Cumulative	39 (6.8%/year)	8 (1.5%/year)	31 (5.3%/year)
2007	7.7	5.61	2.1
2006	20.8	15.79	5.0
2005	3.2	4.91	-1.7
2004	11.9	12	-0.1
2003	33.65	28.7	5.0
10-Year Cumulative	179.1 (10.8%/year)	99.7 (7.2%/year)	79.4 (3.6%/year)
2002	-1	-22.1	21.1
2001	0.1	-11.9	12.0
2000	15.6	-9.1	24.7
1999	-2.1	21	-23.1
1998	23.8	28.6	-4.8
15-Year Cumulative	287.5 (9.4%/year)	93.8 (4.5%/year)	193.7 (4.9%/year)
1997	24.7	33.4	-8.7
1996	19	23	-4.0
1995	23.6	37.6	-14.0
1994	12.4	1.3	11.1
1993	22.1	10.1	12.0
20-Year Cumulative	875.3 (12.1%/year)	388.1 (8.2%/year)	487.2 (3.9%/year)
1992	13.4	7.6	5.8
1991	27.4	30.5	-3.1
1990	5.3	-3.1	8.4
1989	24.6	31.7	-7.1
1988	19.8	16.6	3.2
25-Year Cumulative	2114.7 (13.2%/year)	919.9 (9.7%/year)	1194.8 (3.5%/year)
1987	37.1	5.1	32.0
1986	24.8	18.6	6.2
1985	43.9	31.6	12.3
1984	13.6	6.1	7.5

Commentaries and Stories

Currently 4.50/5

Rating: 4.5/5 (2 votes)

Thomas Russo - In Investing, "Then What?" Is a Very Good Question

June 4, 2013

Business Outlook India interviews successful value investor Thomas Russo: More...

Currently 3.38/5

Rating: 3.4/5 (8 votes)

Tom Russo Interview with GuruFocus at the 10th Annual Value Investor Conference

May 7, 2013

This interview took place on May 2, before Tom Russo gave his presentation to the 10th Annual Value Investor Conference in Omaha. Russo is a partner at Gardner Russo & Gardner, a firm with over $5 billion under management. He was previously at the Sequoia Fund, and has degrees from Dartmouth and Stanford. Last year, his partnership returned 22%. More...

tom russo, emerging markets, value investor conference, global investing, omaha, 10th annual, nestle

Currently 4.00/5

Rating: 4.0/5 (3 votes)

Tom Russo On Attending Berkshire Hathaway's Annual Meeting

May 5, 2013

Tom Russo is a partner at Gardner Russo & Gardner and has managed to beat the S&P 500 index by 4.7 percentage points annually between 1984 and 2011. More...

Video

Currently 4.00/5

Rating: 4.0/5 (9 votes)

Ask a Guru: Tom Russo, Tom Gayner and David Rolfe

April 29, 2013

GuruFocus will be attending the 10th Annual Value Investor Conference in Omaha on Thursday and Friday, May 2 and 3, and talking to some of your favorite investors – Tom Russo, Tom Gayner and David Rolfe. We will also ask them some reader questions. If you have anything about investing you would like to ask them, submit them in the comments section below. We’ll pose the questions at the conference and post the answers on the site. More...

Currently 5.00/5

Rating: 5.0/5 (2 votes)

Tom Russo's Presentation - 2013 Ben Graham Value Investing Conference

April 22, 2013

Tom Russo Presentation - Ben Graham Centre 2013 Value Investing Conference More...

Currently 4.50/5

Rating: 4.5/5 (2 votes)

Global Investor Tom Russo’s Top Six Holdings

April 20, 2013

As a world traveler that brings a global perspective and the old-fashioned value of suffering market patience to his investing strategy, Tom Russo of Gardner Russo & Gardner is long on European companies, new markets and multi-nationals. Russo’s updated portfolio lists 255 stocks (34 of them new), a total value of $8.5 billion and a quarter-over-quarter turnover of 6%. More...

PACKAGED FOOD, TOBACCO, BEER, LUXURY GOODS, BEVERAGES

Currently 2.50/5

Rating: 2.5/5 (2 votes)

Value Investor Tom Russo Buys More Philip Morris International, Nestle, Wells Fargo, Berkshire Hathaway

April 19, 2013

Renowned value investor Tom Russo made most of his money by investing in companies that produce food, drinks, cigarettes, as well as Berkshire Hathaway. He loves high-quality companies with family-oriented management. Over the past five years, his fund Semper Vic Partners averaged 6.8% a year, while the S&P500 gained just 1.5% a year. More...

Currently 4.00/5

Rating: 4.0/5 (6 votes)

75-Minute Interview with Value Investor Tom Russo

March 11, 2013

Thomas A. Russo has been a partner at Gardner Russo & Gardner since 1989. The firm has over $5 billion under management, and he oversees $4 billion as general partner of Semper Vic Partners limited partnerships, as well as in individually managed accounts. Prior to joining Gardner Russo & Gardner, Russo was at the Sequoia Fund. Russo is a graduate of Dartmouth and has an MBA and JD from Stanford. More...

Currently 3.33/5

Rating: 3.3/5 (3 votes)

Value Investor Tom Russo Sees Opportunity in Tobacco

February 7, 2013

Warren Buffett has avoided direct investments in the cigarette industry because he is not comfortable with the product. Tom Russo however owns shares in Philip Morris International (PM), British American Tobacco (BTI) and Altria (MO). Why does he own them? More...

Currently 3.50/5

Rating: 3.5/5 (14 votes)

Tom Russo Buys More Berkshire, Wells Fargo, Nestle and MasterCard

November 9, 2012

Tom Russo, a partner at Gardner Russo & Gardner, made additions to several of his positions in the third quarter. The investor has said previously that he buys only the largest holdings in the company’s $6.2 billion equity portfolio. Therefore, he increased the size of his positions: Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), Nestle SA (NSRGY) and MasterCard Inc. (MA). More...

Currently 3.56/5

Rating: 3.6/5 (9 votes)

Tom Russo on Finding Value in Europe

September 21, 2012

Listen to well-known value investor Tom Russo on his quest to find value in European stock. Listen to what he thinks about European companies and how he goes about finding value in the continent as it goes through to its own economic turmoil. Russo has invested in Europe for long time. More...

TOM RUSSO, RUSSO PARTNERS, VALUE INVESTOR, VALUE INVESTING, VALUE IN EUROPE, CONSUMER STAPLES IN EUROPE, LOW VALUATIONS IN EUROPE

Currently 3.25/5

Rating: 3.3/5 (4 votes)

Tom Russo on Europe

August 2, 2012

More...

Currently 3.88/5

Rating: 3.9/5 (8 votes)

Tom Russo Buys More Heineken, Berkshire, Nestle, Pernod

July 31, 2012

Tom Russo, portfolio manager at Gardner Russo & Gardner, oversees roughly $5 billion and has a unique investing strategy. He buys stocks for an exceptionally long hold period, often decades. His favorite sectors are alcohol, tobacco and global luxury and consumer goods companies with plenty of emerging market growth. A company’s ability to reinvest also signals future profitability for him. More...

Currently 3.25/5

Rating: 3.3/5 (12 votes)

Tom Russo’s Favorite Stocks with Emerging Market Growth

June 18, 2012

Tom Russo, partner at Gardner Russo & Gardner overseeing $5 billion, has an investing strategy that bypasses all of the turmoil in the U.S. and abroad: looking for companies that have superior brands, long-term growth objectives and operations in emerging markets where their products are becoming affordable. He interviewed in Barron’s this weekend and talked about his favorite stocks. Three of them are Nestle (NSRGY), Diageo (DEO) and MasterCard (MA). More...

Currently 3.57/5

Rating: 3.6/5 (7 votes)

Tom Russo Discusses His Investment Strategy in Europe

June 18, 2012

Value investing guru Tom Russo of hedge fund Gardner Russo and Gardner was on CNBC Fast Money to discuss his portfolio, which is full of European stocks, and where he is seeing opportunity in Europe amid all the turmoil. More...

TOM RUSSO, RUSSO AND GARDNER, NESTLE, EUROPEAN CRISIS, OPPORTUNITIES IN EUROPE, CONSUMER STAPLE

Currently 3.00/5

Rating: 3.0/5 (3 votes)

Tom Russo Says Europe Is on Sale

June 13, 2012

Tom Russo, partner at Gardner, Russo & Gardner, is the master of slow money. He first purchased Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) stock in 1983 and still holds the stock. Russo also took a position in Nestle (NSRGY), still a favorite investment of his, in 1988. More...

TOM RUSSO, EUROPE, HEINEKEN, DIAGEO, NESTLE, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY

Currently 4.50/5

Rating: 4.5/5 (2 votes)

Investing Advice from Best of Best Value Investors

May 31, 2012

This video is a collection of various interviews from the world's best investment advice from the best of the best value investors, from Warren Buffett to Tom Russo. More...

WARREN BUFFETT, PETER LYNCH, JOHN TEMPLETON, SETH KLARMAN, CHARLIE MUNGER, WALTER SCHLOSS, BILL ACKMAN, BRUCE GREENWALD, MARTIN WHITMAN, WHITNEY TILSON, IRVING KAHN, JOHN BOGLE, HERSH COHEN, DAVID WIN

Currently 2.56/5

Rating: 2.6/5 (9 votes)

Tom Russo on Warren Buffett and his Berkshire Hathaway holding

May 19, 2012

Thomas Russo, a partner at Gardner Russo & Gardner talk about the outlook for Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and their investment strategies for the company's shares. More...

TOM RUSSO, RUSSO AND GARDNER, WARREN BUFFETT, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY, SHAREHOLDER MEETING

Currently 3.63/5

Rating: 3.6/5 (8 votes)

Tom Russo Adds to BRK.A, MA, BUD, WFC in the First Quarter

May 10, 2012

Tom Russo is general partner at Gardner Russo & Gardner, overseeing $3 billion. His updated portfolio for the first quarter 2012 reveals additions to holdings of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A), Mastercard (MA), Anheuser Busch ADR (BUD) and Wells Fargo (WFC), among others. More...

Currently 3.92/5

Rating: 3.9/5 (12 votes)

Tom Russo’s Growing, Global, Extremely Long-Term Top Holdings

February 6, 2012

Tom Russo has been a partner at Gardner Russo & Gardner since 1989. He manages $3 billion as general partner of the Sempter Vic Partners and Semper Vic Partners (Q.P.) limited partnerships, as well as other funds. Russ0 has a 25-year cumulative return of 2754.9% compared to 979.9% for the S&P. Throughout his almost 30-year career, he has employed a consistent investing style, which is to buy quality, global holdings and hold for the radically long term (in some cases over two decades). Most of his stocks are in the food, beverage, advertising-supported media and tobacco industries. He prefers companies that are willing to make large investments in growth, even if it will cause the company’s short-term performance to suffer, and that have upstanding management (often family-owned), competitive moats and customer loyalty. More...