Ric Dillon Grows Bearish On Sysco, Prudential, Likes Axalta, and More

Ric Dillon’s Diamond Hill Capital Management is an independent investment management firm. It was founded in 2000 and is based out of Columbus in Ohio. The fund offers its services to individuals and institutions such as mutual funds and exchange traded funds. Finance stocks form the biggest chunk of its portfolio, followed by Consumer Discretionary and Health Care stocks.

Diamond Hill Capital Management shuffled its portfolio during the September quarter. Some of the major movements were made in stocks such as Axalta Coating Systems Ltd (NYSE:AXTA), Hartford Financial Services Group Inc (NYSE:HIG), Coty Inc. (NYSE:COTY), SYSCO Corporation (NYSE:SYY) and Prudential Financial Inc (NYSE:PRU).

Ric Dillon Diamond Hill Capital

Ric Dillon of Diamond Hill Capital

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Axalta Coating Systems Ltd (NYSE:AXTA) stock dipped 3% this year so far. The stock accounted for 1.33% of Diamond Hill Capital Management’s portfolio. For the quarter ended on 30th September, 2016, the investment fund boosted its holding of the stock by 154% to 7.63 million shares. The fund’s holding amounted to $215.705 million. Of the hedge funds in our database, 43 funds held $2.16 billion worth of Axalta Coating Systems shares in their portfolio at the end of the June quarter, which equals to 34.20% of the outstanding shares. The company announced building its new coating manufacturing and Logistics facility in Nanjing, China. The project is expected to be finished by the end of 2018. The company plans to streamline the powder coating manufacturing process with this production facility.

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Hartford Financial Services Group Inc (NYSE:HIG) stock gained 12% in this year so far. Diamond Hill Capital Management initiated its position in the stock by buying 3.74 million shares during the quarter ended on 30th September, 2016. The fund held $160 million worth of Hartford Financial Services Group stock at the end of the quarter, forming 0.99% of its portfolio. Among the funds we track, 34 funds held $1.05 billion worth of Hartford Financial Services Group’s stock in aggregate at the end of June, having amassed 6% of its outstanding stock. The company announced its third quarter adjusted operating earnings at $1.06 per share. Its quarterly revenue stood at $4.7 billion, up 13 percent on year over year basis.

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Coty Inc. (NYSE:COTY) stock formed 0.94% of Diamond Hill Capital Management’s portfolio at the end of September quarter. The fund held 6.46 million shares of the company with a market value of $151 million. The number of funds from our hedge fund database long Coty was at 13 in the quarter ending June. The total value of their holdings stood at $269 million, in comparison to $278 million held by 22 funds at the end of previous quarter. Coty reported its quarterly adjusted earnings at $0.23 per share, lower than consensus estimate of $0.33 per share in earnings. The company announced its revenue for the quarter at $1.08 billion, falling behind street expectations of $1.14 billion.

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SYSCO Corporation (NYSE:SYY) stock gained 29% this year so far. The company also offers dividend yield of 2.33%. Diamond Hill Capital Management slashed its holding of the stock by 94% during the September quarter to 323,270 shares. The market value of the holding stands at $15.84 million and formed 0.10% of Diamond Hill Capital Management’s portfolio. 31 hedge funds from our database have positions in SYSCO, with total holdings of about $3.73 billion as on the end of June quarter, amounting to about 13.10% of the company’s outstanding stock. SYSCO reported its first quarter earnings at $0.67 per share, higher than street expectations of $0.58 per share. Its quarterly revenue came in at $14 billion, which also surpassed market forecast of $13.9 billion.

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Prudential Financial Inc (NYSE:PRU) stock climbed 30% this year as it also saw 99% decrease in its holding by Diamond Hill Capital Management. The investment firm held 2,612 shares of Prudential Financial Inc. worth $213,000 as on the end of September quarter. 35 hedge funds we track held around $741 million of Prudential Financial stock as on the end of June quarter, in comparison to 33 funds holding stock worth $811 million the previous quarter. The company recently announced its third quarter earnings at $2.66 per share, up 10.8 percent on year over year basis. Its total revenue for the quarter was reported at $15.1 billion, up 35.9 percent from the same quarter of the previous year.

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