Giverny Capital Asset Management, LLC, an investment management company, recently published its fourth-quarter 2023 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. The firm’s model portfolio returned 16.26% (net) in the fourth quarter compared to an 11.69% return for the S&P 500 Total Return Index. The fund had an annual return of 29.07% compared to the 26.29% return for the Index during the same period. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2023.
Giverny Capital Asset Management featured stocks such as SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:SSNC) in the fourth quarter 2023 investor letter. Headquartered in Windsor, Connecticut, SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:SSNC) is a software products and software-enabled services provider to the financial and healthcare sectors. On February 5, 2024, SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:SSNC) stock closed at $60.46 per share. One-month return of SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:SSNC) was 0.43%, and its shares lost 1.91% of their value over the last 52 weeks. SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:SSNC) has a market capitalization of $14.965 billion.
Giverny Capital Asset Management stated the following regarding SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:SSNC) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
“It’s a bit like two neighbors, both young and with excellent incomes. If one diligently saves a good portion of their income, dollar cost averages regularly into the stock market, pays a little extra on the mortgage every month and avoids credit card debt, while the other dabbles in exotic investments, is on a first-name basis with a local bookie and maxes out credit cards at the holidays, we have a pretty good idea which household will be richer at age 65, no matter who earns more money over their careers.
It’s the same for companies. Earnings power matters, but not more than capital allocation. I thought about this for a while and sold SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:SSNC) in the third quarter. This is a fine business with a history of making smart acquisitions. But recently the decision to use floating rate debt to finance acquisitions when interest rates were at historical lows has been a costly mistake. SS&C is growing modestly, but its earnings are stagnant because incremental cash flow must be dedicated to higher interest charges.
Selling SS&C and Markel, which were each about 4% of the portfolio, was not easy for me. Both businesses trade for reasonable prices and have good competitive positions. They have strong CEOs who have been in the job for many years. CEO Bill Stone founded SS&C and is a billionaire thanks to his own decisions. Tom Gayner at Markel is a well-regarded stock market investor and a much-admired leader.”
A financial advisor providing consultation to a client to help manage their portfolio.
SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:SSNC) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 43 hedge fund portfolios held SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:SSNC) at the end of third quarter which was 43 in the previous quarter.
We discussed SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:SSNC) in another article and shared hedge fund manager Charles Paquelet’s top tech stock picks. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q4 2023 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
