Company type | Private company |
---|---|
Industry | Investment Management |
Founded | 1969 |
Headquarters | |
Products | Mutual fund, Hedge funds, Separately managed accounts |
AUM | $6.73 billion (7th November 2022) [1] |
Number of employees | 66 |
Website | www |
Ruane Cunniff LP, based in New York City, is the investment firm founded in 1969 by William J. Ruane, Richard T. Cunniff and Robert Goldfarb.
Ruane Cunniff LP is best known as the investment advisor and distributor of the Sequoia Fund (SEQUX). For a long time after its inception in 1970 the Sequoia Fund recorded one of the best long-term track records on Wall Street.
Ruane Cunniff LP manages $19 billion in assets across the Sequoia Fund, hedge fund partnerships (Acacia Partners and Wishbone Partners), and separately managed accounts. [2]
After Robert Goldfarb retired David Poppe became the CEO, and the sole portfolio manager of the Sequoia Fund, until his retirement in Oct 2018. [3] After Poppe stepped down, [4] a five-person investment committee manages the Sequoia Fund. [5]
The history of the Sequoia Fund traces its roots to Bill Ruane's lifelong friendship with Warren Buffett. Bill Ruane first met Buffett at a value investing seminar taught by Benjamin Graham at Columbia University in 1950. When Buffett closed his investment partnership in 1969, he advised his clients to invest with Ruane in the Sequoia Fund. In 1970, William J. Ruane and Richard T. Cunniff founded the Sequoia Fund to take on Buffett's former investors. [6] [7] [8] Robert Goldfarb joined the firm in 1971.
In The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville, Buffett wrote, "When I wound up the Buffett Partnership, I asked Bill Ruane if he would set up a fund to handle all of our partners, so he set up the Sequoia Fund. Bill was the only person I recommended to my partners." [9] During his search for a candidate to succeed him as chief investment officer of Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett said, "I'm looking for another Bill Ruane." [10]
In the 45-year period from its inception in 1970 to 2015, the Sequoia Fund earned an annualized return of 14.65% versus the S&P 500's annualized return of 10.93%. [11] According to Morningstar, Sequoia Fund outperformed its large-cap blend-category peers in 332 of the 333 rolling 10-year periods dating back to its 1970 start. [12] The fund closed to new investment in 1982 and reopened 26 years later in 2008. [13] In 2010, Morningstar named co-managers Robert Goldfarb and David M. Poppe Domestic-Stock Fund Managers of the Year in recognition of the excellent long-term performance of the Sequoia Fund. [14] [15] In 2013, the Sequoia Fund again closed to new investors. [16] In April 2016 and after a sharp loss on Valeant Pharmaceuticals, the Fund indicated it was reopening to new investors. [17]
In 2016, the fund lost $1.26 billion in a single day when Valeant Pharmaceuticals stock, which made up 19% of Sequoia Fund holdings, lost a significant portion of its value. [18] Goldfarb and Poppe responded by saying that their "credibility as investors has been damaged by this saga." [18] The Valeant Pharmaceuticals position accounted for over 30% of Sequoia Fund's assets in mid-2015, and declined 87% from a high of $265.52 in August 2015 to $33.43 in March 2016. [3] Over this time period Sequoia fell by 22%, performing worse than 99% of rival funds. [19] At one point, over 30 percent of the fund's assets was invested in Valeant. [20]
Warren Edward Buffett is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist who currently serves as the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. As a result of his investment success, Buffett is one of the best-known investors in the world. As of June 2024, he had a net worth of $135 billion, making him the tenth-richest person in the world.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded in 1839 as a textile manufacturer, it transitioned into a major conglomerate starting in 1965 under the management of chairman and CEO Warren Buffett and vice chairman Charlie Munger.
Value investing is an investment paradigm that involves buying securities that appear underpriced by some form of fundamental analysis. Modern value investing derives from the investment philosophy taught by Benjamin Graham and David Dodd at Columbia Business School starting in 1928 and subsequently developed in their 1934 text Security Analysis.
Sequoia Capital is an American venture capital firm headquartered in Menlo Park, California which specializes in seed stage, early stage, and growth stage investments in private companies across technology sectors. As of 2022, the firm had approximately US$85 billion in assets under management.
Morningstar, Inc. is an American financial services firm headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and was founded by Joe Mansueto in 1984. It provides an array of investment research and investment management services.
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Bausch Health Companies Inc. is an American-Canadian multinational specialty pharmaceutical company based in Laval, Quebec, Canada. It develops, manufactures and markets pharmaceutical products and branded generic drugs, primarily for skin diseases, gastrointestinal disorders, eye health and neurology. Bausch Health owns Bausch & Lomb, a supplier of eye health products. Bausch Health's business model is primarily focused on acquiring small pharmaceutical companies and then sharply increasing the prices of the drugs these companies sell.
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William J. Ruane was an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist.
Allergan, Inc. was an American global pharmaceutical company focused on eye care, neurosciences, medical dermatology, medical aesthetics, breast enhancement, obesity intervention and urologics. Allergan, Inc. was formed in 1948, incorporated in 1950 and became a public company in 1970. It ceased operation in 2015 when it was acquired by Irish-based Actavis plc, who then renamed the group as Allergan plc.
Robert Goldfarb serves as president and CEO of Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb, the value investing firm founded in 1970 by William J. Ruane and Rick Cunniff. Goldfarb is a disciple of Warren Buffett, the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. A native of St. Louis, Goldfarb received his B.A. from Yale University in 1967, where he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, and went on to earn his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School in 1971. In 2010, Goldfarb and David Poppe were selected as Domestic-Stock mutual fund managers of the year by Morningstar, Inc. for the outstanding long-term performance of the Sequoia Fund.
"The Superinvestors of Graham-and-Doddsville" is an article by Warren Buffett promoting value investing, published in the Fall, 1984 issue of Hermes, Columbia Business School magazine. It was based on a speech given on May 17, 1984, at the Columbia University School of Business in honor of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Benjamin Graham and David Dodd's book Security Analysis. The speech and article challenged the idea that equity markets are efficient through a study of nine successful investment funds generating long-term returns above the market index. All these funds were managed by Benjamin Graham's alumni, following the same "Graham-and-Doddsville" value investing strategy but each investing in different assets and stocks.
William Albert Ackman is an American billionaire hedge fund manager who is the founder and chief executive officer of Pershing Square Capital Management, a hedge fund management company. His investment approach has made him an activist investor. As of June 2024, Ackman's net worth was estimated at $9.3 billion by Forbes.
Walter Jerome Schloss was an American investor, fund manager, and philanthropist. He was a well-regarded value investor as well as a notable disciple of the Benjamin Graham school of investing. He died of leukemia at the age of 95.
Tweedy, Browne Company LLC is an American investment advisory and fund management firm founded in 1920 and headquartered in Stamford, CT. As of December 2012, it managed approximately 13 billion dollars in separate accounts and four mutual funds. The firm specialized in value investing influenced by Benjamin Graham, and is also known for their association with Warren Buffett during the early phase of his career. Tweedy, Browne has been described as "the oldest value investing firm on Wall Street".
J. Michael Pearson is a Canadian American pharmaceutical company executive. He is the former chairman and CEO of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International after being ousted in the aftermath of a report on pharmaceutical pricing published by Citron Research in April 2016.
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Mutual fund manager Ruane Cunniff & Goldfarb, manager of the Sequoia Fund and the company's biggest holder of Valeant shares, lost $1.26 billion on the investment ... trailed 97 percent of peers over the last year because of Valeant. The shares accounted for 19 percent of the fund as of Dec. 31. "As the largest shareholder of Valeant, our own credibility as investors has been damaged by this saga," the fund's co-managers Robert Goldfarb and David Poppe wrote