Best Stocks To Buy Now: Hedge Fund Breton Hill Likes Automobiles, Tobacco

Breton Hill, a Toronto-based macro-focused alternative asset management firm focused on liquid market strategies, was established by Ray Carroll in 2011 with $100 million in seed capital from various investors. Prior to founding Breton Hill, Carroll was the CIO for the Mosaic division at Diversified Global Asset Management (DGAM), a multi-billion dollar Canadian asset management firm. Carroll has guided his fund wisely over the years, as the latest 13F filing shows that Breton Hill’s total U.S. equity portfolio was worth slightly over $227 million. Let’s take a closer look at Carroll’s favorite positions.

First, a little about ourselves. We at Insider Monkey monitor the smart money. We pay attention to elite funds’ moves because our research has shown that elite funds are extremely talented at picking stocks on the long side of their portfolios. It is true that hedge fund investors have been underperforming the market in recent years. However, this was mainly because hedge funds’ short stock picks lost a ton of money during the bull market that started in March 2009. Hedge fund investors also paid an arm and a leg for the services that they received. We have been tracking the performance of hedge funds’ 15 most popular small-cap stock picks in real time since the end of August 2012. These stocks have returned 102% since then and outperformed the S&P 500 Index by around 53 percentage points (see the details here). That’s why we believe it is important to pay attention to hedge fund sentiment; we also don’t like paying huge fees.

#4 Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM)

Shares held (as of September 30): 78,248
Total Value (as of September 30): $6.2 million
Percent of Portfolio (as of September 30): 2.72%

Who says sin doesn’t pay? The strong dollar may be having a negative effect on Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM)’s international sales, but shares have still returned 12.7% year to date and also pay an attractive 4.61% dividend yield too. Not bad for a cigarette stock many investors wrote off in the 90’s. Demand for tobacco is inelastic and Philip Morris will make money in good times and bad.  Andy Brown‘s Cedar Rock Capital owns 12.46 million shares.

#3 Altria Group Inc (NYSE:MO)

Shares held (as of September 30): 124,641
Total Value (as of September 30): $6.78 million
Percent of Portfolio (as of September 30): 2.97%

As well as Philip Morris International has done, Altria Group Inc (NYSE:MO) has done even better. Altria Group Inc (NYSE:MO) shares are up an astounding 24.94% year to date, as earnings per share has met or beaten analyst expectations for four straight quarters. Given that Altria owns around 27% of the recently sold SABMiller, management could use the extra money garnered to deleverage, pay a special dividend, or buy back some stock (if the deal goes through). We’re fans of the company given the attractive 3.79% dividend yield. Tom Russo‘s Gardner Russo & Gardner owns 6.5 million shares.