According to a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mason Hawkins‘ Southeastern Asset Management has trimmed its holding in Koninklijke Philips NV (ADR) (NYSE:PHG) to some 14.07 million shares with shared dispositive power as compared to 16.94 million of the same shares held as of March 31. The aggregate amount of shares under the fund’s possession meanwhile amounts to 44.01 million shares, while the previously known aggregate amount, from a 13G filing submitted on February 13, was 50.88 million shares. The current aggregate holding represents about 4.6% of the company’s outstanding shares and is passive by nature.
Hawkins founded Southeastern in 1975 along with three other partners. Prior to that, the money manager served as Director of Research at Atlantic National Bank until 1973 and as Director of Research at First Tennessee Investment Management until 1975. He has also served in the capacity of co-portfolio manager at Longleaf Partners Small-Cap Fund. Southeastern currently has more than $28 billion worth of regulatory assets under management and offices in Tennessee, London, Singapore, Sydney, and Tokyo. The market value of the fund’s public equity portfolio stood at $15.93 billion at the end of March, with 23% of the value of its holdings held in finance sector stocks.
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Southeastern has held a position in Koninklijke Philips NV (ADR) (NYSE:PHG) since the third quarter of 2001. The stock of the $24.79 billion technology company, which operates in the healthcare, consumer lifestyle, and lighting segments, hasn’t been a strong performer lately. So far this year the share price is down by more than 9.5%, and nearly 17% over the past 12 months. In contrast, the industry of diversified industrials has posted average year-to-date gains of 5.78% and is up by 8.62% over the last year.
Lately Koninklijke Philips NV (ADR) (NYSE:PHG) has been trying to position its healthcare segment as a strong driver for growth and has expanded its product portfolio and signed significant deals in this regard. The products include Amara View CPAP mask for CPAP patients, Alice NightOne for patients with sleep disorders, and Lumify, which offers greater mobility and connectivity for the ultrasound process. Koninklijke Philips NV (ADR) (NYSE:PHG) also signed a 15-year ultrasound provision partnership with Reinierde Graaf hospital in the Netherlands.
In its financial results for the first quarter, Koninklijke Philips NV (ADR) (NYSE:PHG) missed analyst estimates, posting a quarterly EPS of €0.11 ($0.12), which marked a 26% increase on a year-over-year basis, while revenues of €5.34 billion ($5.89 billion) represented a 13% increment from the same quarter last year. The causes for disappointment were entrenched in the softness in the prevailing markets of China, Russia, Brazil, and Japan, combined with currency impact and remediation cost in Cleveland.
Koninklijke Philips NV (ADR) (NYSE:PHG) has been facing a loss of interest from smart money. Among the funds that we track, eight had an aggregate investment of $675.92 million in the company at the end of March, as compared to 12 firms with $701.30 million in holdings at the end of the previous quarter. Aside from Southeastern, the two largest stockholders of Koninklijke Philips NV (ADR) (NYSE:PHG) within our database include John A. Levin‘s Levin Capital Strategies and Dmitry Balyasny‘s Balyasny Asset Management. Their respective holdings at the end of the first trimester amounted to 5.49 million shares valued at $155.51 million and 840,800 shares valued at $23.83 million.
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