Pioneer Investments Sells Stakes in Allergan, Xilinx in First Quarter
On its website, Pioneer Investments (Trades, Portfolio) assures visitors that its goal is "to offer concrete investment solutions that satisfy real investment needs," and it claims that its "time-tested" approach to investing "is supported by in-depth research and analysis as well as expert portfolio and risk management."
It is reasonable to presume that the same applies to Pioneer's own investment - and divestiture - decisions.
Pioneer Investments (Trades, Portfolio) has a 12% Q/Q turnover rate so it isn't surprising that it sells many of its stakes in any given quarter. In the first quarter, it sold about as many stakes as usual - fewer than in most quarters, in fact. Pioneer sold its stakes in 61 companies in the first quarter, two of which had impacts on Pioneer's portfolio that were greater than any of its acquisitions.
Those divestitures were in Allergan Inc (AGN) and Xilinx Inc (XLNX).
Pioneer sold its 887,293-share stake in Allergan, a California-based pharmaceutical company that was founded in 1950, for an average price of $225.95 per share, more than three times what Pioneer paid when Allergan was a new holding in its portfolio five years ago. The sale had a -0.68% impact on Pioneer's portfolio.
Allergan, which produces Botox and owns the trade names for Botox Cosmetic and Vistabel, has a market cap of $72.12 billion and an enterprise value of $69.32 billion. It has a P/E of 47.9, a Price/Book of 9.2 and a Price/Sales of 10.1. Three gurus - George Soros (Trades, Portfolio), John Paulson (Trades, Portfolio) and Joel Greenblatt (Trades, Portfolio) - have shares of Allergan in their portfolios. Three others - Dodge & Cox, First Eagle Investment (Trades, Portfolio)and Mario Gabelli (Trades, Portfolio) - also sold their stakes in the first quarter.
Pioneer sold its 3,811,258-share stake in Xilinix, a San Jose, California-based supplier of programmable logic devices that was founded in 1984, for an average price of $41 per share. That sale had a -0.6% impact on Pioneer's portfolio.
Xilinx has a market cap of $11.75 billion and an enterprise value of $10.14 billion. It has a P/E of 19.3, a Price/Book of 4.7 and a Price/Sales of 5.3. Ray Dalio (Trades, Portfolio) and PRIMECAP Management (Trades, Portfolio) also sold their stakes in Xilinx in the first quarter. Charles Brandes (Trades, Portfolio), First Eagle Investment (Trades, Portfolio) and Joel Greenblatt (Trades, Portfolio) have shares of Xilinx in their portfolios.
Pioneer added 53 new buys to its portfolio in the first quarter. The greatest impact was made by the purchase of 2,198,255 shares of Citizens Financial Group Inc (CFG), a Rhode Island-based bank that was founded in 1828 and was taken over by Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in 1988, for an average price of $24.51 per share. The value of each share has risen 6% since Pioneer made that acquisition. That purchase had a 0.2% impact on Pioneer's portfolio.
Citizens Financial Group has a market cap of $13.98 billion and an enterprise value of $19.5 billion. It has a P/E of 24.2, a Price/Book of 0.7 and a Price/Sales of 3.0. Leon Cooperman (Trades, Portfolio) also bought a stake in Citizens Financial Group in the first quarter. Charles Brandes (Trades, Portfolio) added to his existing stake.
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This article first appeared on GuruFocus.
