Top 5 Finance Stock Picks of Cantillon Capital

#3 Willis Towers Watson PLC (NASDAQ:WLTW)

 – Shares Owned by Cantillon Capital (as of March 31): 3.04 Million

 – Value of Holding (as of March 31): $360.58 Million

Moving on, Cantillon’s newly initiated stake in Willis Towers Watson PLC (NASDAQ:WLTW) represented 6.3% of its portfolio on March 31. Just recently, the London-based global advisory, broking and solutions company announced a new range of analytical products that will help companies diagnose exposures related to cyber-risk, natural catastrophes, and workers compensation. At the same time Willis Towers has also enhanced its other core analytical tools. So far this year, the stock is down by over 2.4%, but rose by nearly 5% in April, building on an uptrend that began in mid-February. With ownership of 18.42 million shares valued at $894.85 million, Jeffrey Ubben‘s ValueAct Capital was the largest stockholder of Willis Towers Watson PLC (NASDAQ:WLTW) in our system by the end of last year.

#2 S&P Global Inc (NYSE:SPGI)

 – Shares Owned by Cantillon Capital (as of March 31): 3.98 Million

 – Value of Holding (as of March 31): $394.08 Million

Formerly known as McGraw-Hill Financial, Inc., the company changed its name effective April 30 following a shareholder vote at the company’s Annual Shareholders Meeting. Cantillon’s holding of the stock received an 18% bump during the first quarter, to 3.98 million shares. The stock has rallied by a hefty 8.4% on a year-to-date basis, pushing it into green territory for the past 12 months, at 2.5%. S&P Global Inc (NYSE:SPGI) posted earnings of $1.20 per share on revenue of $1.26 billion for the first quarter, beating EPS estimates by $0.05, but missing revenue estimates by $100 million. While the company is still engaged in the integration of SNL Financial, it is also working towards the $1.1 billion divesture of J.D. Power to investment firm XIO Group, which was announced in early April. John Armitage‘s Egerton Capital Limited raised its S&P Global Inc (NYSE:SPGI) holding by 9% to 5.63 million shares during the fourth quarter.

#1 Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE:FIS)

 – Shares Owned by Cantillon Capital (as of March 31): 7.75 Million

 – Value of Holding (as of March 31): $490.66 Million

Lastly, Cantillon’s largest financial equity holding and largest holding overall as of March 31 was Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE:FIS), which represented 8.6% of the fund’s portfolio after the position was trimmed by 4% during the first quarter. Fidelity National recently landed a place on Oppenheimer’s list of ten value stocks with great growth potential. Among the factors underpinning the presence of the $21.52 billion company on the list were its acquisition of SunGard which is expected to lead to $200 million worth of synergies during fiscal year 2017, and that it was trading at a forward P/E of 14-times. Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management raised its stake in Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE:FIS) by 4% during the first quarter to 276,000 shares valued at $17.68 million.

Disclosure: None