Moderating inflation, declining longer-term interest rates and a depreciating US dollar contributed to a rebound in stocks for the fourth quarter. The S&P 500 gained 7.56% for the quarter but declined 18.11% for the year, while the Auxier Focus Fund Investor shares gained 11.21% and lost 4.52% for the full year. The Nasdaq Composite was the worst performing of the major benchmarks, down 32.5% in 2022 as high growth, longer-duration stocks experienced valuation compression. 2022 was tough even for conservative portfolios, with the Morningstar Global 60/40 Index falling by 17.73%, making it one of the worst years in history for the strategy. A record $18 trillion was lost in global securities as the world was caught off guard by rapidly rising inflation and a unified monetary tightening by most global central banks. Bonds, both domestic and international, suffered double-digit declines. It was the worst decline in US bonds since 1774. There is currently an entire generation of investors who have never faced the challenges of higher inflation and increasing interest rates.
Contributors
Financials represented one of the strongest sectors during the fourth quarter. In banking, disciplined spread lenders are enjoying improving net interest margins. The big risk is in the unregulated shadow banking and $1.3 trillion leveraged loan market.
Property & casualty insurers are seeing higher renewal pricing and written premiums as insured losses from natural disasters were $132 billion. According to AON (AON, Financial), total global economic losses were $313 billion which adds to worldwide demand as more than half of the losses in 2022 were uninsured. During challenging economic times, we like dull businesses with inspired management that sell low-cost necessities like insurance. This improved pricing environment and higher rates on bond portfolios helped earnings and cash flows for companies like Travelers (TRV, Financial) and AIG (AIG, Financial). Health and supplement insurers like UnitedHealth (UNH, Financial), Elevance (ELV, Financial), Cigna (CI, Financial) and Aflac (AFL, Financial) are benefiting from a rapid expansion of Medicare and Medicaid spending due to rising demand from aging baby boomers. As hospital staffing continues to be a problem it is projected that the healthcare services provided by retail could double by 2023 which is a positive for CVS (CVS, Financial), Walmart (WMT, Financial), Amazon (AMZN, Financial) and Kroger (KR, Financial). In the pharmaceutical space Merck (MRK, Financial) continues to perform well and was up about 44% in 2022. Merck’s recent success has been driven by strong sales of their blockbuster drug Keytruda, which fights cancer using immunotherapy. It is expected to become the highest selling drug in the world within the next few years and Merck is developing a new formulation that would extend its patent protection until at least 2040. The war in Ukraine, together with strong post-pandemic travel, is a positive for aerospace and defense industries. Companies like Raytheon (RTX, Financial), Lockheed Martin (LMT, Financial), Parker Hannifin (PH, Financial), CAE (CAE, Financial) (pilot training) and Boeing (BA, Financial) stand to benefit. The increased expenditures on global travel are leading to strong payment and cross border volumes for Visa (V, Financial), Mastercard (MA, Financial) and Booking (BKNG). The energy sector has had a historically strong year as the US is now number one in global reserves while exporting 60% of production. Refiner Valero’s (VLO) profits this year exceeded the prior five years combined. Others in the portfolio like Phillips 66 (PSX), Conoco (COP), Chevron (CVX) and BP (BP) have enjoyed record results as well. The more reliable, lower cost energy supply is bringing jobs back to the US as manufacturers seek to be closer to customers through reshoring. However, as of this writing natural gas prices have hit their lowest levels since April 2021, down 74% from their peak last August. This is good news for the 48% of Americans who heat with natural gas. Don’t underestimate the ability of the US to produce and overproduce energy. Back in April 2014 Texas Utilities, that state’s biggest utility, filed for bankruptcy, which followed earlier petitions by Enron and Pacific Gas and Electric (PCG).
Detractors
Companies like Alphabet (GOOG) and Microsoft (MSFT), which were major beneficiaries of the pandemic demand for all things digital, had a rough quarter and year. Digital ad sales have suffered as did sales for most tech hardware, especially personal computers. The flood of capital into streaming services crushed the valuations of most media including Comcast (CMCSA) and Warner Bros. (WBD). As the tech industry continues to be stressed due to fears of a recession, valuations could return to more reasonable levels and present buying opportunities.
Stock market corrections are a fairly common occurrence though many of them are relatively short-lived. According to Yardeni Research, the S&P 500 has undergone 39 declines of 10% or more since 1950 and 24 of those reached their bottoms in 104 or fewer days. At the end of the quarter the S&P 500 had been in a bear market for over 280 days. According to Forbes the average bear market for the S&P 500 is 289 so we are heading for record territory. With the Federal Reserve (the Fed) not expected to enact interest rate easing until 2024 this could become the longest bear market in history, surpassing 2000-2002’s 929 days. Bear markets can provide new opportunities. Defensive industries like energy, utilities, consumer staples and healthcare performed well during the fourth quarter and significantly better than more expensive technology stocks for the full year 2022. The potential for a long-term bear market could refocus investors on these more defensive industries.
Normalizing Interest Rates
The Fed hiked rates by 425 basis points during 2022. This has greatly benefited savers and conservative businesses with large cash balances while harming many speculators reliant on easy money. We are seeing a normalization of interest rates which was desperately needed by the financial sector worldwide. The graph shows the historical levels of inflation in relation to short-term rates. At the extreme there were over $17 trillion in negative yielding bonds. Thankfully that has totally reversed with interest rates now globally in positive territory.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 6.5% annually in December and declined by 0.1% month-over-month. Volatile energy prices have heavily impacted consumer inflation, but prices have declined significantly from highs in June. The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge is the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index as it takes out volatile food and energy prices and was at 5.7% in December. Despite slowing inflation, Federal Reserve officials are projecting the target range for rates in 2023 will be 5%-5.25%. Currently the market is anticipating a lower range than Fed officials have indicated, and they are expecting some rate declines in the second half of 2023 which seem unlikely at this point. Rate increases are expected to be less aggressive in 2023 with the expectation being several 25 basis point hikes. The Fed will likely maintain rates until inflation begins to fall closer to their long-term 2% target. While goods inflation has been declining, the jobs market remains tight and could force the Fed to keep rates elevated for longer than expected. According to Paychex, small and medium-sized firms continue to add to payroll at a healthy pace while more bloated industries that were beneficiaries of the pandemic boom have been rightsizing.
One area that is seeing significant inflation is the food industry. McDonald’s (MDC) CEO Chris Kempczinski recently projected continued upward pressure on food prices into the new year. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the food component of the CPI increased by 10.4% in December compared to 2021. A big factor in food inflation has been water shortages in big farming states. Arizona produces more than 90% of the country’s leafy greens and has seen massive cuts to the amount of water they get from the Colorado River. California is in the midst of the driest 3-year period since the late 1800s. Their Central Valley produces 25% of the food in the US. The drought is expected to have shrunk irrigated farmland by nearly 10% and led to $3 billion in losses for California in 2022. The state’s water troubles run deeper than just the drought with an infrastructure for containing and transporting water that was built nearly 100 years ago. Even though recent massive storms called “atmospheric rivers” have added welcome volumes of precipitation, much of the water was lost due to antiquated infrastructure.
Value Outperforming Growth
Since the financial crisis in 2008 value stocks have consistently underperformed growth stocks, but with rising inflation and price-earnings multiple compression for the most highly valued companies that trend is changing. Over the last 13 years, growth stocks benefited from slow economic growth which led to low inflation, near zero interest rates and easy money. When capital was cheap investors were more willing to invest in growth at any price which significantly drove up valuations. Tesla (TSLA) is an example of a growth company whose valuation took off without the backing of underlying fundamentals. At its peak market cap in November of 2021, it surpassed the market cap of all other global automakers combined while accounting for less than 2% of global car sales. During 2022, the Russell 1000 Value Index outperformed the Russell 1000 Growth Index by over 20 percentage points which was the second largest value outperformance since the indexes were created in 1979. Finding superior enduring businesses with cheap valuations and double play potential could be vital strategy in the coming years if higher inflation persists.
Auxier Focus Fund’s Investor Class returned 11.21% in the fourth quarter and -4.52% YTD through December 31. The cap-weighted S&P 500 Index returned 7.56% for the quarter and -18.11% YTD while the DJIA returned 16.01% and -6.86% over the same periods. Small stocks as measured by the Russell 2000 returned 6.23% for the quarter and -20.44% YTD. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index returned 9.7% for the quarter and -20.09% YTD. Stocks in the Fund comprised 88.8% of the portfolio. The equity breakdown was 80.4% domestic and 8.4% foreign, with 11.2% in cash and short-term debt instruments. A hypothetical $10,000 investment in the Fund since inception on July 9, 1999 to December 31, 2022 is now worth $53,830 vs $42,607 for the S&P 500 and $43,447 for the Russell 1000 Value Index. The equities in the Fund (entire portfolio, not share class specific) have had a gross cumulative return of 847.80%. The Fund had an average exposure to the market of 81.7% over the entire period. Our results are unleveraged.
In Closing
Several important lessons can be learned from the severe market correction in 2022. Highly valued, popular “story stocks” purchased in times of euphoria can torpedo a portfolio. It is important to identify bubbles and avoid them. When interest rates are close to zero, promoters come out of the woodwork. Talk is cheap. Like Peter Lynch used to say, the key organ when investing is the stomach. These challenging markets underscore the importance of transparency, truly understanding what you own and the ability to quantify risk. Stocks represent a share of a business with a heart and soul. The new book Kick Up Some Dust by the co-founder of Home Depot (HD), Bernie Marcus, is a terrific story about how core values and culture are critical to creating long term shareholder returns. Home Depot went public on September 22, 1981, and a $5,000 investment has grown to over $74 million today.
We appreciate your trust.
Jeff Auxier (Trades, Portfolio)
The views in this shareholder letter were those of the Fund Manager as of the letter’s publication date and may not reflect his views on the date this letter is first distributed or anytime thereafter. These views are intended to assist readers in understanding the Fund’s investment methodology and do not constitute investment advice.
Performance data quoted represents past performance and is no guarantee of future results. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance data quoted. Investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that an investor's shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than original cost. As stated in the current prospectus, the Fund’s Investor Class Share’s annual operating expense (gross) is 1.08%. The Fund’s adviser has contractually agreed to waive a portion of its fee and/or reimburse Fund expenses to limit total annual operating expenses at 0.92%, which is in effect until October 31, 2023. Other share classes may vary. The Fund charges a 2.0% redemption fee on shares redeemed within 180 days of purchase. For the most recent month-end performance, please call (877) 328-9437 or visit the Adviser’s website at www.auxierasset.com.
