Jim Cramer has a popular CNBC show called “Mad Money,” and he has been known to track a number of stocks and a number of major money managers to get a read on the markets and what may be happening in coming months and years for certain companies. If certain managers make a move on a particular stock or a sector, Cramer tends to pay attention and shares the information with viewers.
On his show recently, Cramer spent a segment talking about fund manager Nelson Peltz,, who manages Trian Partners – one of the more than 400 hedge funds we track here at Insider Monkey. But with so many other “celebrity” managers like David Einhorn, Bill Ackman and Carl Icahn recently in the headlines, why in the world would Cramer talk about like Nelson Peltz? Well, aparently Cramer felt the need to speak out about those who reacted negatively to the recent announcement that Peltz wanamed to the board of directors at snack company Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ). After the announcement was made of Peltz’s addition to the board, the stock fell, and Cramer spoke up to say he disagreed with the selloff.
Except not so much in nice way – but in the Jim Cramer way.
“The people who sold? They should have their heads examined,” Cramer said to his “Mad Money” audience. He went on to note that if you follow activist investors like Icahn, Ackman, Einhorn and the like and you bought shares in companies that these activists go involved in (like earning a spot on a board), those shares in aggregate performed below the S&P 500 benchmark.
Except one – Peltz. “If you piggybacked off of Peltz, you consistently beat the S&P,” Cramer said. “Whyis that? I think that if Nelson Petlz takes a substantial position in a company … he treats it like it’s his own business. and that is great new or investors, because he has a 30-year history of making money for people in the markets.”
Cramer went on to relate some of the highlights of Peltz’s career as an activist, where he had served on several key boards and those stocks rallied at faster rates than the S&P benchmark over the same period. Cramer ran down the list of some key stocks like the H.J. Heinz Company (NYSE:HNZ), The Wendy’s Co (NASDAQ:WEN), Ingersoll-Rand PLC (NYSE:IR), Legg Mason Inc. (NYSE:LM) and E I Du Pont De Nemours and Co (NYSE:DD), which all saw significant rallies during the time that Peltz was involved on their respective boards of directors.
In his current Trian Partners portfolio, his most recent 13F filing showed that Peltz’s largest stake was in Mondelez International Inc (NASDAQ:MDLZ), with more than 23 percent of his portfolio in the stock (a value of $1.29 billion as of the end of September). His No. 2 stake is in PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE:PEP), valued at about $975 million as of the end of September (nearly 18 percent of his portfolio). No. 3 on his holdings list is the aforementioned Ingersoll-Rand PLC (NYSE:IR), with a stake worth about $838 million (slightly more than 15 percent of his portfolio). Sitting in the No. 4 spot is The Wendy’s Co (NASDAQ:WEN) at about 13 percent of his portfolio, or about $704 million in stock; and the No. 5 position is held by Family Dollar Stores, Inc. (NYSE:FDO), with a position worth about $602 million (about 7 percent of the portfolio) at the end of the 2013 calendar third quarter.
