Breton Hill’s Top Consumer Picks Include General Motors Company (GM), Ford Motor Company (F), and Others

Breton Hill Capital Ltd. is one of the most prominent alternative asset management firms in the sector. The Canada-based firm managed by Ray Caroll was founded in 2011 and focuses on liquid market strategies. The firm launched its flagship macro fund in 2011. It aims to offer long term capital appreciation by identifying trends in equity, commodities and currency market.

As of the end of September, Breton Hill manages an equity portfolio worth $329.84 million, according to its latest 13F filing. The portfolio is fairly distributed with the largest shares represented by the Consumer and Financial sectors. In fact, the fund has increased its exposure to the majority of its holdings in the consumer sector and in this article we are going to take a closer look at the five companies that represented its largest holdings in the sector. More specifically, the companies in question are: General Motors Company (NYSE:GM), Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F), Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS), Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM), and Altria Group Inc. (NYSE:MO).

The smart money sentiment is an important metric that can be used to assess the long-term profitability of a stock. While there are thousands of stocks trading daily on the market, taking a look at what hedge funds think about certain companies can narrow down the search significantly. At Insider Monkey, we track more than 740 hedge funds, whose 13F filings we analyze as part of our small-cap strategy. Our research has shown that imitating a portfolio that includes the 15 most popular small-cap stocks among hedge funds can outperform the market by as much as 95 basis points per month on average (see more details).

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General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) stock has declined by some 5.80% so far this year, which pushed its dividend yield to 4.74%. General Motor represents Breton Hill’s largest position amassing 3.3% of its equity portfolio. During the second quarter, the investment fund increased its holding in GM by 5% to 324,546 shares worth $10.31 million. Among the hedge funds in our database, 65 funds held $3.29 billion worth of General Motors shares in their portfolio at the end of June. General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) recently announced its new Chevy Bolt car, a fully-electric vehicle which will cost $37,000 and is expected to have a range of 238 miles. The company is looking to capitalize the burgeoning electric vehicles market with this new model and to compete with Tesla Motors, which is currently one of the leaders in the EV space. Even though the Chevy Bolt is currently more attractive then Tesla Model S in terms of pricing, its closer competitor will be the recently-announced Tesla Model 3.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) stock followed the general trend in the auto segment and has slid by over 14% year-to-date. However, Breton Hill boosted its position by by 18% during the third quarter and held a $9.54 million stake containing 790,749 shares at the end of September. Among the funds we track, 31 funds held stakes in Ford worth $685 million in aggregate at the end of the second quarter. In the last couple of weeks, Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) issued a number of updates regarding some of its factories, including two plants in Mexico producing passenger cars that will be closed. In addition, the company also halted production at one of two plans that makes F-150 trucks for a week and shut down temporarily a plant in Michigan that produces Mustangs. The company cited sluggish demand as the main reason behind the decision to curtail the production .

Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS) amassed 2.73% of Breton Hill’s portfolio at the end of September as the fund held 156,542 shares of the company worth $9 million. The number of funds from our database long Las Vegas Sands amounted to 23 and the total value of their holdings stood at $283 million at the end of June. Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS) is currently facing uncertainty about its Macau operations on account of ongoing Chinese crackdown on gambling business in the island. The company earns nearly 50% of its EBITDA from its Macau operations.

Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) stock has gained nearly 10% so far this year and has a dividend yield of 4.29%. Breton Hill boosted its holding in the company by 12% to 90,078 shares valued at $8.75 million during the September quarter. Overall, 47 hedge funds from our database had positions in Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) valued at $4.61 billion at the end of June. Philip Morris International announced third-quarter earnings of $1.25 per share, beating the consensus estimate of $1.24 per share, but its revenue of $6.98 billion was lower than the expected $6.99 billion.

Altria Group Inc. (NYSE:MO) stock has gained around 11% year-to-date. Meanwhile Breton Hill raised its exposure to the company by 11% on the quarter to 138,290 shares worth $8.74 million held at the end of September. A total of 46 funds we track held about $1.90 billion worth of Altria Group Inc. (NYSE:MO) stock at the end of June. Altria Group recently disclosed holding a 9.6% stake in Anheuser-Busch InBev after it completed the merger with SABMiller. Altria also announced tripling its share buyback program to $3 billion. The buyback program will be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2018.

Disclosure: none