The Procter & Gamble Company (PG): Yacktman Asset Management Is Enthusiastic About Its Brands

In a recently published Yacktman Asset Management’s Q1 2019 Investor Letter (download here), the fund posted a few short comments on several of its holdings, and reported quarterly return of 7.77%, which is below the S&P 500 that gained 13.65%. Among the stocks discussed was The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG), for which the fund said the following:

“P&G’s shares delivered strong returns in the first quarter after reporting sustained improvement in organic sales. We think the company is executing with an improved focus and has a strong portfolio of brands. The strength of brands matters today more than ever. In the past, owning the right sector could often get an investor to a similar result. Today, owning the correctly positioned companies can produce a wildly different outcome.”

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The Procter & Gamble Company is a world-famous American consumer goods corporation that was founded back in 1837. Among its most popular brands are Ariel, Always, Pampers, Tide, Ace, Head&Shoulders, Pantene, BrAun, and Gillette, to name a few. Since the beginning of the year, the company’s stock gained 15.10%, and on May 8th it had a closing price of $105.07. Its market cap is $263.55 billion, and the stock is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.99.

Heading into the first quarter of 2019, a total of 60 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 13% from one quarter earlier. Below, you can check out the change in hedge fund sentiment towards PG over the last 14 quarters. With hedgies’ capital changing hands, there exists a select group of noteworthy hedge fund managers who were boosting their stakes meaningfully (or already accumulated large positions).

According to Insider Monkey’s hedge fund database, Trian Partners, managed by Nelson Peltz, holds the most valuable position in The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG). Trian Partners has a $3.4848 billion position in the stock, comprising 37.7% of its 13F portfolio. The second largest stake is held by Cedar Rock Capital, led by Andy Brown, holding a $1.1428 billion position; 30.5% of its 13F portfolio is allocated to the company. Other professional money managers with similar optimism aside from Donald Yacktman’s Yacktman Asset Management, contain Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management and Panayotis Takis Sparaggis’ Alkeon Capital Management.

Disclosure: None.

This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.