Interview with a Fidelity Portfolio Manager: In Depth Diligence and Financial Analysis for Above Average Returns
67 WALL STREET, New York - July 3, 2013 - The Wall Street Transcript has just published its 2013 U.S. Banking Review. This special feature contains expert industry commentary through in-depth interviews with public company CEOs, Equity Analysts and Money Managers. The full issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.
Topics covered: 2013 U.S. Banking Review
Companies include: Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK-A), Allied World Assurance Company (AWH) and many others.
In the following excerpt from the 2013 U.S. Banking Review, an expert portfolio manager from Fidelity discusses his investing methodology:
...Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) is a $265 billion market cap company that I believe is under-researched and largely misunderstood. Many people discard the firm as a closed-end fund run by Warren Buffett, but in reality it is a collection of various discrete assets. I found the opportunity over the last couple of years to conduct additional deep due diligence on the company that's allowed me to really understand the firm's complexity, growth prospects and the intrinsic value of its various assets. The company's position in the fund as of February largely reflected this fundamental research.
TWST: Can you give us an example of something that made you turn your attention to a company?
Mr. Dignan: Allied World (AWH) was a top-10 holding for the fund, and was even a top-five holding for a period of time. In the summer of 2011, it made a bid for a company called Transatlantic, and the market did not like its involvement in that process. As a result, Allied World's stock declined materially.
This was a company that had been on my radar screen for a while, and my research suggested a couple of things. One, Allied World had a heavily redundant balance sheet. Two, its mix had shifted substantially, and favorably, from its inception in 2001. I believed it had the potential for very strong prospective earnings growth from when we were looking at it in the wake of that failed bid, and the price of the company had gone down materially due to the market's short-term reaction to the failed bid.
As a result, we stepped in and acquired a substantial percentage of the company...
For more of this interview and many others visit the Wall Street Transcript - a unique service for investors and industry researchers - providing fresh commentary and insight through verbatim interviews with CEOs, portfolio managers and research analysts. This special issue is available by calling (212) 952-7433 or via The Wall Street Transcript Online.
