Bryant VanCronkhite, lead manager of the $5 billion Wells Fargo Special Mid Cap Value fund, looks for companies with strong balance sheets that are being mispriced by Wall Street, according to Barron’s magazine.
“The fund manager starts out with an investible universe of 250 companies that meet four criteria: durable competitive advantages; strong, sustainable free cash flow; balance-sheet flexibility; and appropriately compensated management teams,” according to the magazine. “Then he digs deeper, looking beyond typical measures such as debt to capital and debt to equity to determine balance-sheet strength.”
In the past five years, the fund has returned 14 percent a year annually, net of 1.99 percent in fees, beating the Standard & Poor’s 500 index’s 13 percent return.
VanCronkhite identifies five companies with strong cash flow:
- TreeHouse Foods Inc. (ticker: THS) The fund manager expect TreeHouse to throw off $500 million-plus in free cash flow over the next five years from $213 million last year.
- Harris Corp. (HRS). VanCronkhite expects the company’s assets to produce higher levels of cash flow in the next three to five years, generating some $1 billion in free cash flow in fiscal 2017, which ends in June, from $772 million this year.
- Wendy’s Co. (WEN) The burger chain’s management team has been on a “multiyear, multipronged” program to raise shareholder value, and the company has almost completed its move to a 95% franchise-owned model.
- DST Systems Inc. (DST) Free cash flow from this transaction processor came in about $109 million in 2015, and he expects that to more than double over the next five years. Shares, which recently traded at $97, yield 1.4%.
- Arris International plc. (ARRS) The TV set-top-box bought British media firm Pace for $2.1 billion, which opens up new satellite technology, a new customer base, and new markets. The biggest risk is the Federal Communications Commission’s plan to help TV viewers ditch set-top boxes.
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