Stand 28.05.2021
The Fiera US Equity strategy was up in absolute performance and outperformed the index over the quarter. Over the period, our relative outperformance was mainly driven by our security selection, particularly successful in the Consumer Discretionary sector. Partially offsetting these positives was our underweight position and weak selection in the Information Technology sector. Among the top contributors over the quarter were UnitedHealth Group and Tiffany & Co. After a year plagued with political uncertainty impacting the US health insurance industry and leading to a depressed valuation in the stock price, UnitedHealth s stock rallied as the company posted strong results exceeding expectations and furthermore appeasing several market concerns, despite lingering uncertainty. The company also held a well-received investor day highlighting areas of improvements and future growth drivers. As for Tiffany s, the stock price jumped late October as Louis Vuitton Mo t Hennessy placed a first takeover attempt on the company, ultimately later agreeing on a higher price, further driving up the stock. Among the largest detractors were CME Group and Oracle. While CME reported solid earnings with record revenues due to strong volumes, and continued synergies from the NEX acquisition, the stock is fairly valued after a long stretch of outperformance. CME later reported a drop in November volumes after experiencing recent highs. As for Oracle, its stock underperformed as the company reported weaker than anticipated results, negatively impacted recently by contract delays, salesforce re-organization and a leadership change. During the quarter we exited our positions in 3M and Tiffany s and initiated a position in Microsoft. We exited our position in 3M as the company faced a difficult macro-economic environment with the decline in the worldwide production of automobiles, electronics and a slowdown in China s economy. Furthermore, in addition to inventory-related disruptions following company-specific internal initiatives, the company is also negatively impacted by potential environmental and personal injury litigations. As for Tiffany s, the stock was sold following its acquisition by French-based Louis-Vuitton Mo t Hennessy. A position in Microsoft was initiated as the company has been transformed under the leadership of CEO Satya Nadella (since 2014) who has delivered great execution and who has fostered a strong collaborative and innovative culture. In comparison with many of its successful tech peers, the company has not one, but two successful segments; notably, personal computing, including Windows and Office and enterprise computing, including cloud platform Azure. Microsoft is well positioned to benefit from industry tailwinds in cloud, leading to sustainable growth and attractive long-term margins due to its scale and operating leverage. Going into the first quarter of 2020, we remain underweight Information Technology, Energy and Communication Services and continue to find more attractive investments in other sectors, including Consumer Discretionary, Materials and Financials. We remain confident that our bottom-up fundamental research, with a focus on very high-quality companies, will continue to provide steady returns over the long term.