Yacktman took that wisdom to heart, but the founder of Austin-based YCG Investments and co-manager of the $357 million YCG Enhanced fund (ticker: YCGEX) has developed his own style of investing. While he looks for quality businesses with high returns on tangible assets, his investment decisions hinge on whether companies have enduring pricing power in industries that are growing at least as fast as gross domestic product. “If you don’t have pricing power, you can’t maintain sustainable high...

The economic devastation of the Covid-19 pandemic has once again put millennials and their uncertain financial futures in the spotlight: They came of age during the Great Recession, and now the oldest among them are turning 40 at a time of unprecedented economic uncertainty. Fund manager Bill Smead who is himself the father of five millennials, thinks investors aren’t giving enough credit to the collective spending of 72 million Americans who are getting married, starting families, and...

Mark Twain is credited with the quip: “Buy land, they’re not making anymore of it.” His wisdom could be updated today with the advice to buy farmland. The world’s population is swelling, so much that global food production needs to increase 50% by 2050, according to the World Resources Institute. Arable land is becoming more scarce, and climate change and extreme weather make it an even more precious commodity. Food fads and commodity swings do influence crop prices, but agricultural land...

Fidelity Investments debuted eight new thematic mutual funds on Tuesday—and a novel pricing model to go with them. The launch includes five funds focused on narrow themes around disruption in automation, communications, fiance, medicine, and technology. A sixth fund, Fidelity Disruptors (ticker: FGDFX), is a fund of funds with equal weighting in each of those five themes. Fidelity’s latest lineup also includes two other thematic funds, the Fidelity Agricultural Productivity fund (FARMX) and...

The past couple of months have been anything but smooth sailing for investors, but sailing is how Ernesto Ramos describes how he and his colleagues use a combination of quantitative and fundamental investing at BMO Global Asset Management in Chicago. “I think of the quantitative model as the sailboat; it’s going to be the same no matter what,” says Ramos, who founded the team behind the $250 million BMO Low Volatility Equity fund (ticker: BLVAX). “Then, just as sailors make adjustments to...