In this article we present the list of Diamond Hill Capital’s Top 10 Stock Picks.
Heather Brilliant’s Diamond Hill Capital is a Columbus, Ohio-based investment management firm founded in 1997 by Ric Dillon, who managed the company until 2019. Mr. Dillon and several members of his team broke off to form VELA Investment Management that year, which led to the addition of Heather Brilliant to the CEO position at Diamond Hill.
Ms. Brilliant earned an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, as well as a degree in economics from Northwestern University. She has since accrued more than two decades of experience in the domestic and international investment markets, including nearly 14 years at Morningstar that culminated in her managing the company’s Australasia division, as well as a successful run as CEO, Americas at First State Investments.
Ms. Brilliant has taken major strides to refocus Diamond Hill in her five years at the helm of the company, closing its private asset management division and several of its investment strategies that didn’t align with the fund’s core value investing ethos. Meanwhile, the fund has bulked up its focus on long-term value and fixed income investing by reworking and growing its teams in those disciplines, and adjusting its operational processes and expectations.
In a November interview on Bloomberg’s The Close, Ms. Brilliant noted that in the current environment of earnings volatility, her team is focused on uncovering high-quality businesses trading at fair valuations. When asked about her team’s approach to investing in broader sectors experiencing secular tailwinds, specifically the utilities sector, Ms. Brilliant said that while the “story” of power-hungry AI is a good one, she was unconvinced by the valuations in the space, noting that she instead likes some of the pricing trends in the insurance space.
That was evidenced by the fund’s large-cap strategy (Q3 investor letter here) adding two big insurance names to its portfolio in Q3, a quarter in which the fund returned 7.84% net of fees, beating the benchmark Russell 1000 Index by 1.76 percentage points. That lifted its year-to-date returns to 14.7% net of fees, ahead of last year’s 13.7% return. The large-cap strategy returned 25.7% in 2021 and 32.2% in 2019.
The Diamond Hill Small Cap Fund (Q3 2024 investor letter here) also added some insurance names to its portfolio during Q3 and rattled off a solid quarter of 8.43% gains, though that trailed the benchmark Russell 2000 Index by 84 basis points. The fund has returned just under 10% annually since inception, beating the Russell 2000 by nearly 200 basis points.
There’s been relatively little volatility in Diamond Hill’s overall sector allocations over the past year, with finance stocks continuing to account for nearly a quarter of the fund’s 13F portfolio, which was valued at $24.7 billion on September 30, up from $23.4 billion at the end of June. Consumer discretionary, healthcare, and industrials stocks were next at 15.9%, 14.1%, and 13.7% exposure respectively. Tech stocks rounded out the fund’s top 5 sectors at 8.6% exposure.
In this article, we’ll take a look at the fund’s top ten holdings as of September 30 to see which stocks Heather Brilliant and her team have the strongest conviction in heading toward 2025.
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Our Methodology
The following data is gathered from Diamond Hill Capital’s latest 13F filing with the SEC.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here). That’s why you should pay close attention to this important indicator.
Note: All hedge fund data is based on the exclusive group of 900+ active funds tracked by Insider Monkey that filed 13Fs for the Q3 2024 reporting period.
Diamond Hill Capital’s Top 10 Stock Picks
10. Sysco Corporation (NYSE:SYY)
Value of Diamond Hill Capital’s 13F Position (9/30/2024): $522 million
Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders (9/30/2024): 33
First up is Sysco Corporation (NYSE:SYY), which Diamond Hill raised its stake in by 12% to 6.69 million shares during Q3. The fund first built a stake in the company during Q1 and then bolstered that position by another 50% in Q2. On the other hand, the broader hedge fund industry has been bailing on the food services company in recent quarters, with overall smart money ownership of the stock down by 30% since the end of March.
Sysco Corporation (NYSE:SYY) shares have gained 16% since the middle of 2024 and the company is bullish on its growth prospects heading into 2025, a year in which it plans to return $2 billion to shareholders. Sysco reported improving traffic trends throughout Q3 (the company’s Q1 of FY25) in both its domestic and international businesses and believes it can leverage its strong balance sheet and size advantage to further scale its business.
Wells Fargo wasn’t quite as bullish on the company’s FY25 Q1 report, lowering its price target on the company to $82 from $87 amid a relatively weak industry backdrop. Though analyst Edward Kelly anticipates improved results in the second half of the company’s FY25, he does see some risk that Sysco won’t hit its guidance targets.
The Diamond Hill Mid Cap Strategy jumped on the opportunity to invest in Sysco Corporation (NYSE:SYY) at an attractive valuation, as the fund declared in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Despite rising valuations, we continue finding attractively valued, quality companies the market is overlooking amid its increasingly narrow focus on the mega-cap technology stocks dominating the major indices. In Q2, we introduced new positions in Sysco Corporation (NYSE:SYY), Civitas Resources, Labcorp Holdings and VeriSign.
Sysco is the US’s leading food-service distributor. We believe it is a high-quality business, and we have followed it for many years. As investors’ concerns about slowing quick-service restaurant traffic have pressured shares, we capitalized on what we believe to be a temporary headwind to initiate a position at an attractive valuation.”
9. Regal Rexnord Corporation (NYSE:RRX)
Value of Diamond Hill Capital’s 13F Position (9/30/2024): $525 million
Number of Hedge Fund Shareholders (9/30/2024): 31
Hedge fund ownership of Regal Rexnord Corporation (NYSE:RRX) shot up to an all-time high at the end of 2022 but has fallen by 26% since then. Diamond Hill has held a large position in the company throughout that time, being the largest RRX shareholder in our hedge fund database. It trimmed its stake by 1% to just under 3.17 million shares during the third quarter.
Weakening demand in its Power Efficiency Solutions and Automation & Motion Control segments led Regal Rexnord Corporation (NYSE:RRX) to cut its projected FY24 EPS view to $9.15 to $9.45 in early November, down from earlier guidance of $9.40 to $9.80. The company paid down $481 million in gross debt during the quarter as it continues an aggressive delevering push.
Analysts are split on the outlook for diversified industrial companies like Regal Rexnord in 2025. Barclays believes industrial end markets that have been under pressure this year will be slow to recover next year, while Seaport Research believes that Trump taking over the Oval Office will provide a boost for Regal Rexnord.
The TimesSquare Capital U.S. Mid Cap Growth Strategy added to its Regal Rexnord Corporation (NYSE:RRX) position in Q2 following a swoon in the stock, as the fund shared in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Many of our Industrials positions provide necessary business-to-business operational services, highly technical components, automation & efficiency improvements, or essential infrastructure services. Here there was a -25% showing from Regal Rexnord Corporation (NYSE:RRX), which specializes in motion control systems, climate solutions, and similar mechanical components for a variety of end markets. There were ongoing pressures on its Power Efficiency and Automation & Motion Control segments that related to destocking in the automation or HVAC end markets. Meanwhile the soon-to-be-divested Industrial Powertrain operations showed better-than-expected results, and the net results were inline revenues and earnings, though lower guidance to adjust for the divestiture. Regal’s management expects a recovery in orders later in 2024 and in the meanwhile will reduce its debt levels, so we added to our position.”
