GAMCO Investors (NYSE:GBL) is a publicly owned hedge fund, founded by its current CIO, Mario J. Gabelli back in 1976. It offers a variety of investment services through its many subsidiaries. Among GAMCO’s clients are high net worth individuals, foundations, and investment companies, to name a few. The fund is headquartered in Rye, New York, but has additional offices in Connecticut, Illinois, and Japan. Mr. Gabelli graduated summa cum laude from Fordham University’s College of Business Administration, earned his M.B.A. from Columbia University Graduate School of Business, and has honorary doctorates from Fordham University and Roger Williams University. Back in 1997, he was named Morningstar’s Fund Manager of the Year, and then 14 years later was crowned The Institutional Investor’s Money Manager of the Year.
Mario Gabelli of GAMCO Investors
What sets GAMCO Investors apart from many other hedge funds is Mr.Gabelli’s wise perspective – approaching publicly traded companies from an acquirer’s angle, which values cash flows more than earnings. Let’s take a look at what this perspective has brought back in terms of returns. GAMCO Investors’ GAMCO All Cap Value (UCITS) – Class I USD fund delivered a not so sharp loss of 6.75% in 2015, but the next year the fund was back on its feet with a return of 8.87%. 2017 was even better in terms of performance, as the GAMCO All Cap Value (UCITS) – Class I USD fund returned 14.55%. Through October 29, 2018, the fund had delivered returns of 3.70%, giving it a compound annual return of 5.63%. As of September 30, 2016, GAMCO Investors manages more than $39.6 billion in assets.
Insider Monkey’s flagship strategy identifies the best performing 100 hedge funds at the end of each quarter and invests in their consensus stock picks. This way it is always invested in the best ideas of the best performing hedge funds and is able to generate much higher returns than the market. Since its inception in May 2014, our flagship strategy generated a cumulative return of 121% vs. a cumulative gain of 66.6% for the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) (see the details here).
During the third quarter, GAMCO Investors made many changes to its large equity portfolio. It added 46 new companies, it raised its stakes in 178, lowered its stakes in 430 and dumped 63 companies. We’ll discuss these changes in more detail on the next page.
GAMCO Investors’ biggest position at the end of the third quarter was in Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE), in which the fund actually lowered its stake by 5% to 4.25 million shares worth around $257.58 million, creating a position that occupied 1.74% of its huge 13F portfolio. The next stock in the fund’s portfolio, as per the value of the fund’s position in it, was Ryman Hospitality Properties Inc. (NYSE:RHP). The position contained 2.97 million shares and was valued at $255.97 million as of the end of the third quarter.
The largest new position the fund bought in Q3 was Dun & Bradstreet Corp (NYSE:DNB), acquiring 114,500 shares valued at around $16.32 million. During the third quarter, GAMCO Investors significantly increased its stakes in J M Smucker Co (NYSE:SJM) and Amc Entertainment Holdings Inc. (NYSE:AMC), by 2,473% to 161,960 shares, and by 627% to 138,000 shares, respectively.
Out of the 430 or so stocks that GAMCO Investors dumped during the third quarter, the biggest position it said goodbye to was in Navistar International Corp. (NYSE:NAV), worth around $218.37 million, and counting 5.36 million shares.
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