Brandes Investment Partners LP, a global investment advisory firm disclosed that it equity portfolio for the second-quarter has a market value of approximately $8.26 billion based on its 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Charles Brandes is the founder and chairman of Brandes Investment Partners. The investment advisory firm practices the value-investing philosophy of Benjamin Graham in selecting stocks and generating long-term growth potential for its clients.
During the quarter, Brandes Investment Partners acquired 22 new stocks and increased its position across 71 equities. The investment advisory firm reduced its stake in 52 stocks and sold out its entire stockholdings in 22 companies.
Brandes Investment’s top five stockholdings
Brandes Investment Partners purchased 2,102, 152 shares in Express Scripts Holding Company (NASDAQ:ESRX) worth approximately $145.74 million.
Last week, the company identified 25 drugs that would be excluded from its 2015 formulary list including Aranesp and Epogen. Both drugs are used to treat anemia and generated $2.7 billion in revenue in the United States a year ago. Patients would be required to pay the full retail price of those not included in its preferred drug list.
Majority of analysts covering Express Scripts Holding Company (NASDAQ:ESRX) recommended a Buy rating with a consensus price target of $79.26 per share. The stock closed $71.79 per share on Monday.
Brandes Investment Partners purchased 184,853 shares of Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) with a market value of approximately $10.71 million.
Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) recently provided a preliminary update on its second-quarter financial results would include gross expenses of $148 million, partially offset by a $38 million insurance receivable related to the data breach on December last year. The retailer also reduced its EPS outlook for the quarter to $0.78 from its previous guidance in the range of $0.85 to $1.00 per share.
During the quarter, Brandes Investment Partners also acquired 188,769 shares of CBS Outdoor Americas Inc (NYSE:CBSO). CBS Outdoor recently reported its second-quarter financial results with $334.4 million in revenue, $22.4 million in net income and $110.3 million in adjusted OIBDA.
The company also approved a quarterly dividend of $0.37 per share. It recently signed a definitive agreement to acquire certain advertising businesses from Van Wagner Communications for $690 million in cash.
Brandes Investment Partners also bought 31,080 shares of Diageo plc (ADR) (NYSE:DEO) and 38,336 shares of Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE:PM) during the period.
Analysts at Canaccord Genuity reiterated their Sell rating for the shares of Diageo with a price target of GBX 1,540 ($25.83) while Credi Suisse maintained its Neutral rating for the stock.
Majority of analysts covering Philip Morris International recommended a consensus rating of Hold. Last month, the company posted quarterly earnings of $1.41 per share compared with the $1.24 estimate of Wall Street analysts. Its revenue was $7.80 billion, higher than the $7.52 billion in revenue consensus estimate.
Increased positions
Brandes Investment Partners increased its stake in Masco Corporation (NYSE:MAS) by 2,033,460 share to 7,178,246 shares. The investment advisory firm also boosted its stake in UBS AG (NYSE:UBS) by 2,227,126 shares to 4,526,362 shares.
It also bought additional 1,468,284 shares of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc (ADR) (NYSE:MTU) to 14,037,071 shares. Brandes Investment Partners also bought 516,767 shares of Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) to 6,158,486 shares.
