Brown Advisory has given the Jupiter US Smaller Companies trust a dramatic makeover as manager Chris Berrier takes the helm.
The asset manager won the mandate off Jupiter last December following news manager Robert Siddles would be retiring after more than two decades at the helm.
Berrier (pictured) and co-manager George Sakellaris replaced Siddles at the start of this month and by 13 April had already ditched the £165m trust’s top 10 holdings and drastically re-configured the portfolio, slashing its exposure to financials and materials.
America’s Car Mart, previously the trust’s largest position at 5.8%, has been replaced by pharma company Charles River Laboratories (3.6%), while On Semiconductor and Pennant Group, the next biggest holdings at 3.8% a piece, have been booted for services firm Genpact and mobile game developer Zynga (both 3.1%).
Berrier and Sakellaris’ top 10 holdings represent 26.7% of the trust’s net asset value, making it less concentrated than Siddles’ lineup which was 36.5% of NAV.
A spokesperson told Portfolio Adviser the portfolio has ballooned from 37 to 76 holdings since Berrier and Sakellaris took over.
| Brown Advisory US Smaller Companies (April 2021) | Jupiter US Smaller Companies (March 2021) |
| Charles River Laboratories International Inc (3.6%) | America’s Car-Mart (5.8%) |
| Genpact Ltd (3.1%) | On Semiconductor (3.8%) |
| Zynga Inc (3.1%) | Pennant Group (3.8%) |
| Workiva Inc (2.8%) | Addus Homecare (3.7%) |
| Iaa Inc Common Stock (2.7%) | Ensign Group (3.7%) |
| Waste Connections Inc (2.6%) | Ttec (3.6%) |
| Catalent Inc (2.3%) | Home Bancshares (3.1%) |
| Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc (2.2%) | Stonex (3.1%) |
| Neogenomics Inc (2.2%) | MSC Industrial Direct (3%) |
| Casey’s General Stores Inc (2.1%) | American Vanguard (2.9%) |
Source: Brown Advisory and Jupiter
New managers slash financials and bump up consumer discretionary names
The trust’s sector breakdown, revealed alongside the top 10 holdings in a portfolio update on Monday, also points to the widespread change behind the scenes.
The biggest of these changes is the trust’s exposure to financials, which plunged from 15.6% to a mere 2% following the revamp. Exposure to materials was also cut back significantly, falling from 9.8% to 1.6%.
Other areas like consumer discretionary and consumer staples, where Siddles had little exposure, feature more prominently now with the former making up 15.9% of total holdings compared to its previous 7.8% and the latter 5% compared to 1.8%.
Brown Advisory US Smaller Companies’ largest weighting is now to IT, which makes up 26.4% of the portfolio, while healthcare, previously the largest sector weighting, is second at 23.7%.
On a three year-view the trust has returned 81.4% versus the IA North American Smaller Companies sector, putting it in the second quartile. But over the last 12-months it has seen performance dip, returning 60.2% against the average 70% gains.
In addition to the Smaller Companies trust, Brown Advisory also absorbed the Jupiter UK Growth trust last year. The fledgling trust, which was briefly run by Richard Buxton after the board sacked manager Steve Davies, was liquidated and rolled into the $2.3bn (£1.6bn) Brown Advisory Global Leaders fund.
