Fisher Asset Management founder Ken Fisher (Trades, Portfolio) gained 78 new holdings during the first quarter of the year. His top three buys were Vodafone Group PLC (VOD, Financial), Daimler AG (DMLRY, Financial) and Itau Unibanco Holding SA (ITUB, Financial).
Fisher founded his firm in 1979. He currently serves as the CEO and chief investment officer. The firm uses a top-down approach to determine which countries and sectors will generate the highest returns.
After exiting his Vodafone stake in second-quarter 2016, Fisher initiated a new holding of 12,420,913 shares for an average price of $25.6 per share. The trade expanded the portfolio by 0.55%.
Vodafone is a multinational telecommunications company. The London-based company has a market cap of $70.4 billion; its shares were trading around $26.47 on Wednesday with a forward price-earnings (P/E) ratio of 29.8, a price-book (P/B) ratio of 0.9 and a price-sales (P/S) ratio of 1.3.
The Peter Lynch chart below shows the stock is trading below its fair value.
GuruFocus ranked the company’s financial strength 4 of 10 and its profitability and growth 4 of 10. The trailing dividend yield and forward dividend yield are both 5.8%. Over the past five years, Vodafone has grown its dividend at a rate of -7.4% per year.
Hotchkis & Wiley is Vodafone’s largest guru shareholder with 0.61% of outstanding shares. In all, nine gurus hold the stock.
Fisher bought 3,960,463 shares of Daimler for an average price of $74.47 per share, giving it 0.49% portfolio space.
Daimler is an automobile manufacturer. Headquartered in Germany, the company has a market cap of $78.56 billion; its shares were trading around $74.87 on Wednesday with a P/E ratio of 8.7, a P/B ratio of 1.3 and a P/S ratio of 0.5.
According to the Peter Lynch chart below, the stock is trading below its fair value.
GuruFocus ranked Daimler’s financial strength 5 of 10 and its profitability and growth 7 of 10. The trailing dividend yield and forward dividend yield are both 4.6%. Over the past five years, the company has grown its dividend at a rate of 9.5% per year.
Fisher is the only guru who holds the company’s over-the-counter shares. He owns 0.37% of Daimler’s outstanding shares.
Having sold out of Itau Unibanco in third-quarter 2012, Fisher purchased a new stake of 11,206,758 shares, giving it 0.23% portfolio space. He paid an average price of $12.22 per share.
Itau Unibanco is one of the largest public banks in Brazil. Headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the bank has a market cap of $73.9 billion; its shares were trading around $12.21 on Wednesday with a P/E ratio of 10.23, a P/B ratio of 1.8 and a P/S ratio of 1.9.
The Peter Lynch chart below shows the stock is trading below its fair value.
GuruFocus ranked the bank’s financial strength 5 of 10 and its profitability and growth 7 of 10. The trailing dividend yield is 0.43% and the forward dividend yield is 0.47%. Over the past five years, Itau Unibanco has grown its dividend at a rate of 42.1% per year.
With his purchase, Fisher became the bank’s largest shareholder with 0.17% of its outstanding shares. Howard Marks (Trades, Portfolio), Dodge & Cox, Jeremy Grantham (Trades, Portfolio), Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio), Julian Robertson (Trades, Portfolio) and John Rogers (Trades, Portfolio) also hold the stock.
Other new holdings Fisher established during the quarter include NetEase Inc. (NTES, Financial), VeriFone Systems Inc. (PAY, Financial), Infinera Corp. (INFN, Financial) SoftBank Group Corp. (SFTBY, Financial) and FireEye Inc. (FEYE, Financial).
Disclosure: I do not own any stocks mentioned in the article.
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