We take a business owner's approach to investing.
Firm ■ Overview
History and Ownership
- Founded in Philadelphia in 1949
- From 1986 to 2001 affiliated with United Asset Management (now Old Mutual)
- In June 2001, the firm executed a management-led buyback
- Clients: Early on - high net worth; today – mostly institutional
Key Professionals
- Investment Team consists of seven research analysts/portfolio managers, and two portfolio managers. Four of the seven analysts have spent their entire careers with Cooke & Bieler
- Six other key professionals lead the client service, marketing, compliance, and operations functions
Client Profile
- Cooke & Bieler manages assets in both separate accounts and sub-advised mutual funds for both institutional and private client /taxable portfolios
- Institutional client base includes corporate pension plans, endowments/foundations, Taft-Hartley plans and public funds
Investment Strategies
- Manages large cap value equity, mid cap value equity, all cap value equity, small cap value equity, and balanced portfolios
Investment Philosophy/Process
- High quality, low risk approach to investing
- Long-term orientation
- Employ a “business owner's approach” to stock market investing whereby we recognize a stock for what it is – an ownership interest in a business
- Investment team follows a bottom-up, research-intensive process focusing on a company's cash flows
- Buy companies at a 40% appreciation potential
- Stocks are sold when their prices reach parity with estimated intrinsic value targets or when the quality of the underlying business is shown to be permanently deteriorating
Portfolio
- Concentrated in 40-50 holdings
- Turnover low at 20-30%
