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Investment Managers Highlight Top Stock Picks
Amanda Cheesley
23 May 2022
Faced with a challenging environment, global investment managers analysed the outlook at London’s Value Investor Conference this month, and highlighted their top stock picks. He targets mid-sized industrial/consumer products/services firms in North America, Europe and Asia, with solid balance sheets, predictable cash flows and sustainable, competitive advantage. His top stock picks include Rheinmetall, a German-based technology, automotive and defence company, which generated sales of €5.7 billion ($6 billion) in 2021. It also includes Westrock, the second largest American packaging company, with $15 billion in annual revenue. Univar Solutions, a large US chemical distributor and value-added service provider, with annual revenue of $8.3 billion in 2020, is Roeper’s third top pick. He cited The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company as a top stock pick, saying that it is the Proctor & Gamble of gardening, with sales of $4.92 billion. Although its shares have declined by as much as 59 per cent since April 2021, partly due to increased capital investment, he believes that long-term prospects are good.
Quaero Capital LLP
Philip Best, founder of Geneva-based a specialist fund management group, cited Groupe Gorge, a French technology company, focused on robotics and drones, with sales worth €189.8 million ($200 million). Another company he invests in is Dutch house builder HEIJMANS which saw strong results in 2021 after shares fell sharply in 2015 to 2016, partly due to poor risk management on projects.
Best also recommended U-BLOX, a Swiss tech company active in chips/modules for GPS and data transmission. In 2021, revenue was up 24 per cent, exceeding expectations, with a strong outlook, he said. This is after growth was held back by the trade war, Covid and a shortage of semiconductors prior to that, he added.
Best launched Quaeros’ Argonaut Fund in 2003 which aims to produce substantial capital growth by investing in micro capitalisation mis-valued companies quoted on European stock markets. It focuses on little-known or poorly-followed smaller companies that have been ignored by mainstream investors, but which have provided positive returns over the past few years.
Atlantic Investment Management
Alex Roepers, founder and chief investment officer at , a global equity-investing firm with $1.4 billion assets under management, highlighted three compelling value stocks that he invests in.
Anchor Capital
Jennifer DeSisto, chief investment officer at , highlighted his investment philosophy at the conference, saying that he takes a private equity approach to stock market investing. He looks for “fallen angels,” companies that have fallen out of favour on Wall Street, but whose fundamentals are not permanently impaired and whose stock is selling at a discount significantly below its intrinsic value.