David Winters (Trades, Portfolio) manages the Wintergreen Fund (Trades, Portfolio), a long-term, global value firm that oversees $636 million.
Winters eschews short-term, emotion-driven trading in favor of securities priced below their intrinsic value, sometimes taking activist positions. Companies of his caliber have low book value, high cash flow, low price-earnings ratio and quality management.
Since its inception in October 2005, the Wintergreen Fund (Trades, Portfolio) has trailed the index, returning an annualized 5.1% compared to 7.7% for the S&P 500.
“It has clearly been a difficult period to be a true value investor, but we believe that remaining disciplined, while so many others have strayed, offers our shareholders a great opportunity for future success,” he said in his Dec. 31 annual shareholder letter.
In the first quarter, Winters had positioned 49.4% of his equity portfolio in consumer defensive stocks and 18% in real estate stocks as its sectors with largest representation among 27 holdings.
Winters said he entered the turbulent quarter with a sizable cash position to “keep a close watch on our wish list as target prices come closer.”
He started three new positions: Heineken Holding NV (XAMS:HEIO, Financial), General Dynamics Corp. (GD, Financial) and JC Decaux SA (XPAR:DEC, Financial).
Heineken Holding NV (XAMS:HEIO, Financial)
Winters purchased 8,056 shares of Heineken Holding NV, a 0.13% portfolio weighting. The stock traded for a quarterly average price of €68.
Heineken Holding NV has a market cap of $20.93 billion; its shares were traded around €74.29 with a P/E ratio of 22.38 and P/S ratio of 1.04. The trailing 12-month dividend yield of Heineken Holding NV stocks is 1.75%. The forward dividend yield of Heineken Holding NV stocks is 2.32%. Heineken Holding NV had an annual average earnings growth of 15.3% over the past 10 years. GuruFocus rated Heineken Holding NV the business predictability rank of 2-star.
General Dynamics Corp. (GD, Financial)
Winters purchased 5,056 shares of General Dynamics Corp., a 0.14% portfolio weighting. The stock traded for a quarterly average price of $132.
General Dynamics Corp. has a market cap of $42.86 billion; its shares were traded around $140.23 with a P/E ratio of 15.14 and P/S ratio of 1.43. The trailing 12-month dividend yield of General Dynamics Corp stocks is 2.01%. The forward dividend yield of General Dynamics Corp. stocks is 2.17%. General Dynamics Corp. had an annual average earnings growth of 4.80% over the past 10 years. GuruFocus rated General Dynamics Corp. the business predictability rank of 2-star.
JC Decaux SA (XPAR:DEC, Financial)
Winters purchased 37,944 shares of JC Decaux SA, a 0.35% portfolio weighting. The stock traded for a quarterly average price of €35.
JC Decaux SA has a market cap of $7.84 billion; its shares were traded around €36.92 with a P/E ratio of 34.19 and P/S ratio of 2.88. The trailing 12-month dividend yield of JC Decaux SA stocks is 1.52%. The forward dividend yield of JC Decaux SA stocks is 1.52%. JC Decaux SA had an annual average earnings growth of 1.2% over the past 10 years.
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