Rupal Bhansali, the chief investment officer for international and global equities at John Rogers (Trades, Portfolio)' Ariel Investments, is taking questions from GuruFocus readers this week. To ask your question, post it in the comments below.
Bhansali, who manages the Chicago-based firm's Ariel Global Fund and Ariel International Fund, began her buy-side career at Soros Fund Management over 20 years ago. She joined Ariel in 2001 and now manages approximately $7 billion in portfolios for both institutional and retail clients.
The newest member of the prestigious Barron’s Investment Roundtable, Bhansali recently published a book through Columbia Business School Publishing on non-consensus investing. Titled “Non-Consensus Investing: Being Right When Everyone Else Is Wrong,” Bhansali said she wrote her book to “pay it forward,” as the last chapter contains encouragement and advice for young women in finance looking to break through the glass ceiling.
With a traditional long-term value approach, Bhansali searches for investment opportunities among undervalued companies in both domestic and international markets. Conducting bottom-up research when building the portfolios, she actively seeks to avoid unnecessary risks. In her second-quarter commentary, she wrote that she sees “several areas of concern” in the market currently, including the “deterioration in corporate debt and credit ratings, the slowdown in global GDP growth, lingering trade tensions and the bifurcation between the market’s beloved FANG stocks and our preferred ‘MANG’ companies.”
As of the end of the second quarter, the Global Fund, which is composed of 58 stocks, had the greatest weighting in health care at 22.19%, followed by communications services at 19.55%.
Its top five holdings were Microsoft Corp. (MSFT, Financial), Roche Holding AG (XSWX:ROG, Financial), GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK, Financial), Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD, Financial) and Philip Morris International Inc. (PM, Financial).
Since its inception in 2011, the fund has returned 8.09% versus the MSCI AWI Index’s 9.98% return.
Ariel’s International Fund, which is composed of 62 as of the end of the second quarter, had the greatest weighting in communication services at 26.01%, followed by health care at 13.32%.
The fund’s top five holdings were Deutsche Boerse AG (XTER:DB1, Financial), Roche Holding, Nintendo Co. Ltd. (TSE:7974, Financial), GlaxoSmithKline and China Mobile Ltd. (CHL, Financial).
The fund has returned 5.46% since its inception in 2011. In comparison, the MSCI ACWI ex.-U.S. Index has returned 6.31%.
We are fortunate to have Bhansali as one of our speakers at the 2020 GuruFocus Value Conference in Omaha, Nebraska next year. For more information on the event and to purchase tickets, please go here.
Bhansali is happy to share her investing expertise with you. Again, to ask her a question about investing, simply post it in the comments section below! GuruFocus will post her answers shortly in an upcoming article.
