Thomas Shrager - Tweedy Browne International Value

Profile

Company: Tweedy, Browne Company LLC || Position: Managing Director & Chairman, Tweedy, Browne Value Funds

Employment: 1989 || Website: https://www.tweedy.com/

Tweedy Browne, a successor to Tweedy & Co. was established by Forrest Birchard Tweedy way back in 1920 and Benjamin Graham’s investment firm, Graham Newman, was one of its primary clients throughout the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. In addition to Graham, three other highly respected investors of the time, Warren Buffett, Walter Schloss and Tom Knapp, were frequent visitors to Tweedy Browne’s office and the latter was instrumental in changing the company from a broker to an investment firm in the late 1950s.

Today, the company’s Management Committee consists of Jay Hill, Thomas H. Shrager, John D. Spears and Robert Q. Wyckoff, Jr. who have served between 18 and 47 years in the role. Tweedy Browne’s primary owners are the company’s senior executives, so there is a natural alignment between the goals of the investment clients and the executives.

Investment philosophy

The company’s long history of investing in companies priced far below their fundamental value is based on Benjamin Graham’s classics “Security Analysis” (1934) and “The Intelligent Investor” (1949).

Originally, the vast majority of Tweedy Browne’s investments were in US companies, but today the company is primarily invested outside the US. According to the company itself, they are looking for companies globally and there are simply more opportunities outside the US, where many markets are also less developed. This makes Tweedy Browne particularly interesting for Danish investors, as we can find many interesting companies from the Nordic region, Southern Europe and China in their portfolio.

Portfolio

Portfolio reported: 30/6-2024

Portfolio published: 19/8-2024

Number of companies: 92

Portfolio value (USD 1000): 5,427,877,817

The data below are the top 50 positions in the International Value Fund based on value and represent more than 90% of the fund’s assets.

The remaining ten percent is typically split between 40-50 small positions, a few preferred stocks, cash holdings and currency hedging.

Screenshot 2023-05-22 at 19.48.16

Flip horizontally for expanded table