Wintergreen Fund

[Guest]

I wouldn't argue with you on just about any mutual fund (and the vast majority of hedge funds) on the small cap value index vs something else. haha

From most measure I see though, small caps look to be the most expensive they've been in a long, long time. I'm thinking with all the academic research, a lot of people "know" small cap value is the biggest outperformer...I wonder if that'll change going forward.

 

Some people do want large cap exposure and I think SEQUX is one of the best in the business. For whatever it's worth, it looks like SEQUX would have also outperformed the equal weight index, over the past decade, if not for the past year (which is no surprise since value shops tend to lag in big market upswings).

 

I'll admit though, RSP is a pretty good choice vs most other things out there, too.

 

But to answer the question, are these guys worth 1% to you? No way man! Heck, I'd be happy to pay you 1% to manage part of my money! ;)

[peter1234]

Made it into the WSJ again:

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/08/15/winters-who-criticized-coke-sells-berkshire-after-buffett-didnt-criticize-enough/

 

Wintergreen has held shares in Berkshire since 2006. During the first quarter, the $150 million Berkshire stake was the largest holding in Wintergreen — bigger even than Coke, of which the fund held 2.5 million shares worth $97 million then, and about $106 million as of end-June.

 

“As a longtime shareholder of Berkshire, Mr. Buffett’s words and actions (or more aptly, inactions) regarding Coke’s 2014 equity plan did not sit well with us,” Mr. Winters said in an e-mailed statement.  ”We no longer felt that Warren Buffett was looking out for his shareholders’ interests.  Although Berkshire Hathaway is still a high quality business with a compelling valuation, it no longer met the second principle of our three-pronged investment criteria – management working on behalf of all shareholders.”

 

Getting  a lot of free publicity, but might eventually backfire?

???

[CorpRaider]

Packer, I too expect that PRF is going to be really tough for diversified large cap funds to beat over the long term.  Let me flag VLUE for you, if you've not already looked at it.  Its an ishares knockoff/clone of the RAFI index with a lower expense ratio (.15 I believe). 

[Munger_Disciple]

to Winter's credit, his turnover ratio is very low from 10-15% over the last 5 years.

 

According to Vanguard S&P500 index turnover is 3.4%, much less than Wintergreen.

[CorpRaider]

Winters is on the list of "superinvestors" @ Dataroma.

 

http://www.dataroma.com/m/holdings.php?m=WA

 

Given his index-like performance, Dataroma judgement is rather questionable.

 

Yeah, I suggested they drop him (if needed to make room) in favor of Icahn, Keith Meister, Mark Rachesky or some others.

[peter1234]

From 2014 Half Year Report

 

We believe the implementation of the 2014 equity plan at Coca-Cola will be expensive for Coca-Cola

shareholders (including Berkshire) and may make it difficult for Coca-Cola to grow value on a per-share basis.

 

Although we sold the vast majority of the Fund’s Berkshire shares, we have held onto our Coca-Cola shares.

We believe the problems at Coca-Cola are fixable and the opportunities are massive.

???

 

The Fund has owned shares of Berkshire

Hathaway since early 2006, and we believe the shares are currently trading for a meaningful discount to their

intrinsic value. During the 2nd quarter of this year, the Fund sold nearly all of its Berkshire shares. Why would

we sell a company with solid economics and undervalued shares, led by an acclaimed CEO? Simply put, we

have lost confidence in management at Berkshire.

 

As shareholders of both Coca-Cola and Berkshire, these words and actions (or more aptly, inactions) did not sit

well with us. We no longer felt that Warren Buffett was looking out for his shareholders’ interests. Although

Berkshire is still a high quality business with a compelling valuation, it no longer meets the second principle of

our three pronged investment criteria — management working on behalf of all shareholders.

???

[Guest]

Nothing like a fund manager (and his ego) letting personal biases against someone hurt his own shareholders.

[thefatbaboon]

I still remember being shocked by this guy after hearing his comments on an Altria conference call.  Altria was in the process of buying back some of the expensive debt they'd issued in the crisis to buy UST.  Winters started congratulating them profusely on their savvy move and the CFO mumbled something, obviously thinking to himself "does this guy not realize that we're having to pay substantial premiums (based on current US Treasury yields) to get this debt back in?"

 

 

 

 

[valueorama]

From 2014 Half Year Report

 

We believe the implementation of the 2014 equity plan at Coca-Cola will be expensive for Coca-Cola

shareholders (including Berkshire) and may make it difficult for Coca-Cola to grow value on a per-share basis.

 

Although we sold the vast majority of the Fund’s Berkshire shares, we have held onto our Coca-Cola shares.

We believe the problems at Coca-Cola are fixable and the opportunities are massive.

 

As shareholders of both Coca-Cola and Berkshire, these words and actions (or more aptly, inactions) did not sit

well with us. We no longer felt that Warren Buffett...management working on behalf of all shareholders.

 

Let me get this straight. He sold BRK(undervalued according to him) but held onto Coca-cola(management created a bad equity plan and not shareholder friendly). He has contradicted himself in one paragraph.

 

BRK not shareholder friendly??? Now, I have heard it all.

 

[OracleofCarolina]

http://www.wintergreenfund.com/

 

The fund is shutting down as of now. Wonder what will happen with the Consolidated Tomoka shares??

[sculpin]

http://www.wintergreenfund.com/

 

The fund is shutting down as of now. Wonder what will happen with the Consolidated Tomoka shares??

 

They were already sold...

 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla., April 10, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Consolidated-Tomoka Land Co. (NYSE American: CTO) (the “Company”) today announced that the Company repurchased a large block of shares of the Company’s common stock as part of the disposition of the entire position owned by its largest shareholder, which shareholder owned in the aggregate more than 28% of the Company’s outstanding shares. The Company acquired 320,741 shares (the “Block Share Repurchase”), or approximately 6% of the Company’s outstanding shares, for approximately $18.4 million. The remaining shares owned by the selling shareholder, totaling 1,232,334 shares, were acquired by multiple investors.

[VersaillesinNY]

Lessons learned

 

You need to balance arrogance and humility. When you buy anything, it’s an arrogant act. You’re saying: The markets are gyrating and somebody wants to sell this to me, and I know more than everyone else, so I’m gonna stand here and buy it. I’m gonna pay 1/8 more than the next guy wants to pay and buy it. That’s arrogant. And you need the humility to say, 'But I might be wrong'. And you have to do that on everything.” – Seth Klarman 2011

[Guest]

I remember when (I think around the funds inception) that he was trying to justify his super expensive fund with "well, with hedge funds you get 2% and 20% so if you want a hedge fund like mutual fund that's what you get" something along those lines.