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DODBX and MAPOX and PRWCX. I own the latter two. Despite the strong anf generalized downward thrust today, PRWCX was actually UP by a penny. It pleases me, since it's my biggest holding. I wonder what the difference is. Why did it yin instead of yang along with the others? I know DODBX is more volatile, day by day...
I would say stock picking and portfolio construction are the major contributors. David Giroux's fund holds 25% bond and 5% cash whereas many balanced funds have about 40% bond. YTD bonds are a drag on balanced funds. Also he is investing in utilities as more of a defensive move since the market is expensive. His recent interview on WealthTrack provided valuable insights of his portfolio.
DODBX is more value oriented. Besides value stocks are lagging the growth counterparts in recent years.
Since the February 2018 lows FSUTX is up 15%. I'm not sure that FSUTX is a poxy for PRWCX's holding in utilities, but it points out that portfolio components, especially defensive components are what separate out successful funds and fund managers.
If you have access to M* premium and look at the holding data (premium), you can see how the top 100 holdings did. (You'll have to do this within the next dozen hours give or take, before M* updates the daily changes for Friday).
If you export this into Excel (with a slight bit of tweaking to separate the day change/pct into two columns), you can sort by day's change to see what the big movers were.
FWIW, top winners by pct were:
Danaher Corp DHR (healthcare, LCB), up 4.47% (2.92% of fund) Thermo Fisher Scientific TMO (healthcare, LCG) 2.20% (1.02% of fund) PerkinElmer PKI (healthcare, MCG) 2% (2.39%) Waste Connections WCN (industrials, LCG) 1.70% (1.06%) Enterprise Products EPD (energy, LCV) 1.50% (0.66%) Aramark ARMK (consumer cycl, MCB) 1.33% (1.6%) DTE Energy DTE (utilities, LCV) 1.24% (1.49%) Eversource Energy ES (utilities, LCV) 1.09% (1.36%) NiSource NI (utilities, MCV), 0.97%, (1.21%)
The table doesn't give day change info on the bond holdings, but generally bonds did well yesterday, e.g. PTTFX was up 0.21%. So that had to help as well. That's consistent with utilities being near the top of the list above (for reference, VUIAX was up 0.96%). As Swen noted, the fund is overweighted in utilities (8% vs. 3% for category/benchmark).
The fund is even more overweighted in healthcare (21% vs. around 11% category/benchmark). Three of those stocks are at the very top of the list above. PRHSX was up minimally (0.03%) on the day, though VHCIX was down 0.40% and VGHCX was down 0.29%, suggesting that healthcare subsectors are not all the same. The second largest holding of PRHSX is BDX, which was up 0.34%, and represents 2.72% of PRWCX.
Yep - PRWCX and DODBX are very different creatures. The former has been running ahead of the other for many years now. Suspect (but can’t prove or demonstrate) that over very long periods they’ll come out about even. PRWCX seems to have more latitude in how it invests and to be quite dependent on a particular managers’ style and market read - coupled with Price’s very fine macro-analysis team (a deep bench). With Giroux at the helm, that’s been a potent combination. I’ve mentioned before that PRWCX does a lot of hedging - using put / call options (neither of which I’m qualified to explain). Both funds struggle with asset bloat - confining them largely to large cap holdings.
DODBX, as I understand it, is essentially a compilation of (60-70%) DODGX and (30-40%) DODIX. So reading the reports on those other two funds might provide additional insight into how it invests. The firm at last report was still more positive on stocks than bonds - so the fund’s stock component was closer to that 70% weighting. As others have said, Dodge and Cox are deep value investors, willing to wait years or even decades for a holding to rise to what they consider its true value. And, they very much use a team-managed style. One additional note: A lot of D&Cs more recent underperformance has been tied to their heavy weighting in financials. Part of that is their belief that financials (like banks) will do well in a rising interest rate environment, while many other sectors won’t. Watching DODBX somewhat closely, I’d say it’s daily performance is quite dependent on how financials perform.
To me watching the ball / moving parts of how managers position their funds is part of what makes investing fascinating. Never been one to simply compare daily, yearly or even 10-year returns in trying to decide whether a particular fund belongs in my holdings. That sometimes seems at odds with other investors’ sentiments.
Never been one to simply compare daily, yearly or even 10-year returns in trying to decide whether a particular fund belongs in my holdings. That sometimes seems at odds with other investors’ sentiments.
@Hank, this is something I've gravitated to also, thanks to you in part. Pick a good fund (like PWRCX) and believe in your decision. There is so much buying and selling, toe hold investing and movement from investors that, I believe, ends up being a lag in investment return over time.
Comments
DODBX is more value oriented. Besides value stocks are lagging the growth counterparts in recent years.
Manager bets are often quite different.
His WealthTrack interview is re-linked here:
HOW DAVID GIROUX DELIVERS STOCK MARKET PERFORMANCE WITH MUCH LESS RISK
If you export this into Excel (with a slight bit of tweaking to separate the day change/pct into two columns), you can sort by day's change to see what the big movers were.
FWIW, top winners by pct were:
Danaher Corp DHR (healthcare, LCB), up 4.47% (2.92% of fund)
Thermo Fisher Scientific TMO (healthcare, LCG) 2.20% (1.02% of fund)
PerkinElmer PKI (healthcare, MCG) 2% (2.39%)
Waste Connections WCN (industrials, LCG) 1.70% (1.06%)
Enterprise Products EPD (energy, LCV) 1.50% (0.66%)
Aramark ARMK (consumer cycl, MCB) 1.33% (1.6%)
DTE Energy DTE (utilities, LCV) 1.24% (1.49%)
Eversource Energy ES (utilities, LCV) 1.09% (1.36%)
NiSource NI (utilities, MCV), 0.97%, (1.21%)
The table doesn't give day change info on the bond holdings, but generally bonds did well yesterday, e.g. PTTFX was up 0.21%. So that had to help as well. That's consistent with utilities being near the top of the list above (for reference, VUIAX was up 0.96%). As Swen noted, the fund is overweighted in utilities (8% vs. 3% for category/benchmark).
The fund is even more overweighted in healthcare (21% vs. around 11% category/benchmark). Three of those stocks are at the very top of the list above. PRHSX was up minimally (0.03%) on the day, though VHCIX was down 0.40% and VGHCX was down 0.29%, suggesting that healthcare subsectors are not all the same. The second largest holding of PRHSX is BDX, which was up 0.34%, and represents 2.72% of PRWCX.
DODBX, as I understand it, is essentially a compilation of (60-70%) DODGX and (30-40%) DODIX. So reading the reports on those other two funds might provide additional insight into how it invests. The firm at last report was still more positive on stocks than bonds - so the fund’s stock component was closer to that 70% weighting. As others have said, Dodge and Cox are deep value investors, willing to wait years or even decades for a holding to rise to what they consider its true value. And, they very much use a team-managed style. One additional note: A lot of D&Cs more recent underperformance has been tied to their heavy weighting in financials. Part of that is their belief that financials (like banks) will do well in a rising interest rate environment, while many other sectors won’t. Watching DODBX somewhat closely, I’d say it’s daily performance is quite dependent on how financials perform.
To me watching the ball / moving parts of how managers position their funds is part of what makes investing fascinating. Never been one to simply compare daily, yearly or even 10-year returns in trying to decide whether a particular fund belongs in my holdings. That sometimes seems at odds with other investors’ sentiments.