Petsmart (PETM)

[chmcnfunds]

New Picks From Billionaire David Harding: PetSmart, Inc. (PETM), Garmin Ltd. (GRMN), Seagate Technology PLC (STX)

By ERIC WINTER in Hedge Funds
Published: February 27, 2013 at 1:51 pm

David Harding of Winton Capital Management had humble beginnings as a hedge fund manager, starting with a paltry $1.6mm in assets in 1997, a far cry from the billions he currently manages. He favors quantitative strategies and keeps diversified exposure to most sectors, with a slight preference to the Services industry. Winton recently released its 13F filing for Q4 2012, outlining the fund’s portfolio activity. We take particular interest in the small-cap holdings of funds like Winton as we have found that the most popular small-cap picks amongst hedge fund managers can provide substantial market-beating returns (learn more here). Read on to see our analysis of the fund’s largest initiations for the last quarter of 2012.

Of Harding’s seventy-seven new purchases, PetSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PETM) was the largest, with 0.58% of the fund’s assets under management. The pet supply retailer had a positive gain looking back twelve months, beating the market’s 8.4% return by four percentage points. PETM reported a positive Q3 2012, with quarterly growth in both revenue and earnings year over year; the company is due to report Q4 earnings on the sixth of March. PetSmart has received two downgrades to neutral since the start of this year, as Wall Street expects lower spending on pets due to higher payroll taxes. Ken Heebner of Capital Growth Management built a PetSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ:PETM) position in the last quarter of 2012 as well (see his fund’s holdings here).
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http://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/new-picks-from-billionaire-david-harding-petsmart-inc-petm-garmin-ltd-grmn-seagate-technology-plc-stx-74982/

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