Whitney Tilson's Top 5 New Buys

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Nov 12, 2013
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Fund manager Whitney Tilson and his partners added 11 new stocks to his portfolio of 40 stocks in the third quarter, the largest of which are: Air Products & Chemicals (APD, Financial), Google Inc. (GOOG, Financial), Belo Corporation (BLC, Financial), rue21 Inc. (RUE, Financial) and SAExploration Holdings Inc. (SAEX, Financial). According to a message from Whitney Tilson himself, of the top 5 new buys, only one is his: APD.


Tilson’s long portfolio at his hedge fund Kase Capital is valued at $63 million, and has its top weighting at 32.6% in the financial services sector, followed by consumer cyclical at 24.8% and real estate at 11.1%. His quarter-over-quarter turnover was 26%.


Tilson’s investing style is classic Graham-Dodd-Buffett. Kase Capital declined 2.3% for the quarter and gained 6.3% year to date, versus gains of 5.2% and 19.8%, respectively, for the S&P 500.


Tilson and his partner’s new buys


Air Products & Chemicals Inc. (APD)


Tilson purchased 35,000 Air Products & Chemicals shares in the third quarter when the price averaged $103. The holding equals 5.9% of his total portfolio.


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Air Products & Chemicals provides atmospheric gases, process and specialty gases, performance materials, equipment and services, to a wide range of industries. Its market cap is $22.64 billion, with shares up 35% over the past year to almost a 10-year high price of $107.93.


Over the past five years it demonstrated per-share growth rates of 5.2% for revenue, 5.4% for EBITDA and 9.9% for book value. Free cash flow declined at a rate of 32.3%.


In the third quarter Air Products produced $2.59 billion in revenue compared to $2.61 billion in the third quarter 2012. Net income totaled $137 million in the second quarter, compared to $139 million the previous year. It also generated $93 million in free cash flow, down from $166 million the previous year. The company’s return on equity is 7.6% and gross margin is 27.2%.


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Air Products & Chemicals has a dividend yield of 2.5%. It trades with a P/E of 23, P/B of 3.3 and P/S of 2.28 which is near a 10-year high.


Google Inc. (GOOG)


Tilson acquired 500 Google shares in the third quarter when the price averaged $887. The holding equates to 0.69% of his portfolio.


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Google is a search engine business with a portfolio of technologies such as the Chrome web browser and email service Gmail. It has a $338.09 billion market cap with shares up 53% in the past year to $1,011.78, which is near a 10-year high.


Google’s per-share growth rates over five years are 23.2% for revenue, 17.2% for EBITDA, 22% for free cash flow and 24.9% for book value. The company reported $14.98 billion in third quarter revenue, compared to $13.3 billion third quarter revenue in 2012. Net income was $2.97 billion, compared to $2.18 billion the previous year.


The company generated $2.79 billion in third quarter free cash flow, down from $3.13 billion the previous year. It has a return on equity of 14.4% and gross margin of 56.9% as of the third quarter.


Google’s 10-year revenue and earnings history chart:


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Google trades with a P/E of 26.9, P/B of 4.1 and P/S of 5.8, which is close to a two-year high.


Belo Corporation (BLC)


Tilson purchased 18,000 Belo Corporation shares in the third quarter when the price averaged $14. The position comprises 0.39% of Tilson’s portfolio.


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Belo Corp. owns television stations and regional cable news channels. The company’s market cap is $1.43 billion, with shares up almost 85% over the past year to $13.73.


In June, Belo announced that it would be acquired by Gannett (GCI) for $13.75 per share in cash, or approximately $1.5 billion, a 28.1% premium to Belo’s close price on June 12, 2013.


rue21 Inc. (RUE)


Tilson purchased 6,000 rue21 shares in the third quarter when the price averaged $41. The holding has 0.38% of his portfolio’s space.


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Rue21 is an apparel company for teenagers. The company was acquired by private equity firm Apax Partners for $42 per share in cash on Oct. 10, 2013.


SAExploration Holdings Inc. (SAEX)


Tilson purchased 17,563 shares of SAExploration Holdings in the third quarter when the price averaged $10. The holding is 0.26% of his portfolio.


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SAExploration is a geophysical services company that provides seismic data acquisition services to the oil and gas industry. It has a $103.34 million market cap, with shares closed at $7.41 on Tuesday.


The company began trading under a new stock symbol, SAEX, in June, following a merger with Trio Merger Corp. on June 24, 2013.


SAEX reported revenue of $42.38 million in the second quarter of 2013 and a net loss of $250,000. It generated $25.2 million of free cash flow. The company has a P/B ratio of 2.77.


The only other guru holding SAEX stock is Chuck Royce who started a position in the second quarter.


See more Whitney Tilson purchases and sells in his portfolio here. Also check out the Undervalued Stocks, Top Growth Companies and High Yield stocks of Whitney Tilson.


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