Insights
The use of gold as a potential hedge against extreme market outcomes has long been a key tenet of First Eagle’s investment philosophy.
At First Eagle, we’ve long held that the United States does not have a monopoly on good companies. While we think most market participants would agree with this sentiment, asset allocation data suggest US investors in general continue to be significantly underexposed to international equities relative to their share of the global opportunity set.
“One of the things that's important that we do a little bit differently at First Eagle, is we don't define value just in purely statistical terms."
Though the current business cycle—the longest in US history—is showing signs of age, the potential timing of and impetus for its end remain uncertain.
Conventional wisdom dictates that everyone should save as much as they can, as early as they can, for as long as they can in order to live a dignified life in retirement.
The long-simmering trade dispute between the US and China has intensified in recent days.
Nurtured by ever-cheaper computing power and the datafication of modern life, the rate of advancement in technologies based on artificial intelligence (AI) and offshoots like machine learning has a
It’s by design that companies in Matthew McLennan’s portfolios aren’t exactly those that set investors’ hearts racing with excitement. “We’re happy to own businesses with what we consider a gradual positive drift to them,” he says. In this article, Matthew McLennan and Kimball Brooker describe how they assess “fade risk” in a number of industries, what makes them uneasy about the state of the world today, why their exposure to gold is higher than normal, and why they see mispriced value in Fanuc, Orkla, Schlumberger, Jardine Matheson and Weyerhaeuser.
The timing and conditions of Brexit remain unclear, but most estimates suggest that both the UK and EU economies will suffer as frictions are introduced into their economic connection.
Investors and consultants frequently ask for the Global Value team’s views on sustainable investing. While we do not offer strategies that focus in this area, we do pay close attention to issues of sustainability because they may be a key to a company’s resilience over the long term. Some investors see the energy sector as the antithesis of sustainability, but we see things differently. In this interview, Benj Bahr, energy-sector analyst on the Global Value team, explains why.
We cannot predict what will happen next in economies or markets, but 2018 had the feel of a transitional year. Volatility, which in our view, had been muted for an unexpectedly long period of time, returned in force during the year—first in February and then again in the fourth quarter.
First Eagle’s Global Value Strategy marked its 40th anniversary on January 1, 2019. From the time that Jean-Marie Eveillard—a pioneer in global value investing—assumed leadership of the Global Value Strategy, it has consistently employed a disciplined, benchmark-agnostic, value-oriented philosophy.
In the latest video insight from The UK Investment Association, First Eagle's Matt McLennan and Kimball Brooker discuss why their focus on downside protection may help create sustainable, long-term value for investors.
First Eagle sources over 90% of its deal volume from private-equity sponsors, and creating and growing its relationships with these firms are high priorities. In this PM’s Perspective, Pat McAuliffe, who heads direct origination, explains the value that First Eagle may add in its sponsor relationships.
Matt McLennan reflects on his first decade managing First Eagle's Global Value team, and the challenges and potential rewards of value investing. See what excites him about the next 10 years.
At First Eagle, we have received many questions about sustainable investing from investors and investment professionals. To help answer these questions, we asked Thomas Kertsos, co-portfolio manager of the Gold Fund, and Max Belmont, research analyst for the Gold Fund, to discuss their thinking in this area.
The private debt market has expanded over the past decade, as institutional and high-net-worth investors, disappointed by falling bond yields, have sought corners of the fixed income market where robust returns may still be available.
In this paper, we explain gold’s power as a potential hedge, examine its history, consider the advantages and disadvantages of bullion, gold stocks and ETFs, and explore the differences between hedging and speculating.
While we don’t have a crystal ball at First Eagle, we do have a sense of current valuations and of the underlying vulnerabilities in the system. If the broader markets themselves are priced for low returns, investors who choose passive vehicles face the prospect of singularly disappointing returns over the long term.
This morning’s election results once again drove home the futility of human efforts to predict the future.
The United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union has already led to signficant turbulence in global currency and securities markets. Beyond this immediate reaction, we believe that political and economic uncertainty could continue for several years as the UK negotiates its new relationship with the EU.
In the past few years, gold and gold-mining stocks have been among the weakest performers in our Global Value and International Value strategies. Given the dramatic decline in some of these holdings, clients have questioned their presence in our portfolios. We believe that gold and gold-mining stocks continue to have a fundamental place in our Global Value and International Value strategies. We’ve organized this paper around the three major reasons for this conviction.
Kimball Brooker talks in depth about what First Eagle's Global Value team looks for when considering investments in holdings companies.
First Eagle's High Yield PMs discuss their approach to investing in a volatile market environment.
When risk is not defined in terms of permanent loss of capital, but rather in terms of deviation from a benchmark, the overall risk to investors increases.
Contact Us
Head of Institutional
Doug Meyer, CFA
doug.meyer@feim.com
212.698.3013