FA Magazine: Foreign Growth Stocks—A Diamond in the Rough?
Polen Global Growth portfolio manager Jeff Mueller shares his view on unique quality growth investment opportunities around the world
Going beyond with the Polen Large Company Growth Team
Our Large Company Growth strategies are based on a high-conviction, quality mindset, and our efforts are focused on both growth and capital preservation. With disciplined, unemotional selling criteria and risk mitigation guardrails underpinning our process, we seek to identify quality companies that we believe are positioned for long-term sustainable growth and continuously re-evaluate these companies with an objective lens.
We are driven by our pursuit for what we believe is our best idea companies, following a rigorous screening and iterative deep-dive research process, going beyond fundamentals to invest across the growth spectrum, and focusing on our goal of delivering consistent, risk-minded returns.
Expertise, Experience & Analysis
The Polen Large Company Growth Team is a diverse group where every member serves as an equity analyst. The team has deep experience with stock selection, uses a highly collaborative and disciplined research and management process, and focuses on our best ideas to identify and maintain concentrated portfolios of what we believe are the highest quality companies worldwide.
Located: Boca Raton, FL
Head of Team: Damon Ficklin, Portfolio Manager & Analyst
Average Team Member Experience: 15 years (as of 03-31-2023)
Our Investment Philosophy
Concentrated Portfolio: High Active Share + Best Ideas Portfolio
Risk Management: Don’t Lose Mentality
Hold Period: Long-Term Time Arbitrage
Outcome Orientation: “Weighing Machine vs. Voting Machine”
Meet the Team
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Philosophy
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People
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Process
We are committed to pursuing a high conviction strategy designed to add value and grow the assets of our clients over the long term.
—Damon Ficklin, Head of Team, Portfolio Manager & Analyst
Polen Large Company Growth Strategies
Our Time-Tested Approach
Polen Large Company Growth Stock Selection Process
The Large Company Growth Team selects stocks through its time-tested process, which has been fine-tuned over three decades and utilizes in-depth research and stringent guardrails for objective screening and monitoring. Our efforts focus on identifying and keeping only what we have identified to be our best ideas that demonstrate competitive advantages and sustainable growth potential across long-term time horizons. 
The Polen Large Company Growth strategies typically hold 20 to 35 companies that the portfolio management team feels are the highest-quality growth names. Examples as of 03/31/2023 include:
Adobe is the market leader in digital and creative software solutions. With low leverage, high profitability, high recurring revenues, and a capital-light business model, Adobe continues to strengthen its value proposition as a mission-critical partner to governments and enterprises. The need for a digital-first customer experience is accelerating, in our view, and we expect the demand for Adobe’s services to increase.
LVMH is a collection of some of the world’s largest luxury brands, including Louis Vuitton, and other global megabrands like Celine, Christian Dior, Dom Perignon, Bulgari, Sephora, and Tiffany. Our research indicates the company enjoys multiple competitive advantages that reinforce each other, including significant scale, a well-honed playbook for nurturing and growing brands, and irreplicable brand heritage. We believe demand will remain resilient and that continued growth in omnichannel luxury shopping will support market share gains.
MercadoLibre operates Latin America’s leading e-commerce website and digital wallet, and we believe the company has a compelling growth runway. E-commerce and consumer finance are underpenetrated among the nearly 400 million citizens across its three largest markets: Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico, and MercadoLibre has steadily expanded its reach with new services for both merchants and consumers.
Recent Large Company Growth Perspectives
1Q2023 – Focus Growth Commentary
We believe owning cash-rich, competitively advantaged businesses avoids the perils of leverage and lack of differentiation
1Q2023 – Global Growth Commentary
Our goal is to construct a portfolio that is comprised of the highest quality, most competitively advantaged businesses around the globe
1Q2023 – International Growth Commentary
We believe the Portfolio is compellingly valued as it continues to be geared for growth at above market rates
Wonderful Companies at Wonderful Prices?
A reminder for the unemotional, patient investor that “fair prices” for high-quality businesses can occasionally become “wonderful prices”
Value Investor Insight: “Taking the High Road” with Polen Global Growth
Portfolio managers Damon Ficklin & Jeff Mueller talk guardrails, why this market feels different & the companies they’re watching closely
Beyond Fundamentals: Is Quality Stock Picking Broken?
Digging into this year’s market drivers, the underperformance of quality stocks, & what it could signal for the future
Get more Polen Perspectives by following us: 
A Collaborative & Research Driven Team
Polen Capital Management, LLC is an independent registered investment advisor.
The information is provided for illustrative purposes only. Opinions and views expressed constitute the judgment of Polen Capital as of the period indicated , may involve a number of assumptions and estimates which are not guaranteed, and are subject to change without update. Although the information and any opinions or views given have been obtained from or based on sources believed to be reliable, no warranty or representation is made as to their correctness, completeness or accuracy. Opinions, estimates, forecasts, and statements of financial market trends that are based on current market conditions constitute our judgment and are subject to change without update, including any forward-looking estimates or statements which are based on certain expectations and assumptions. The views and strategies described may not be suitable for all clients. This information does not identify all the risks (direct or indirect) or other considerations which might be material to you when entering any financial transaction.
Holdings are subject to change. The holdings, as well as other data, are as of the period indicated and should not be considered as a recommendation to purchase, hold or sell any particular security. There is no assurance that any of the securities noted will remain in a portfolio at the time you review this information. Actual holding and percentage allocation in individual client portfolios may vary and are subject to change. The securities discussed do not necessarily represent the entire portfolio. It should not be assumed that any of the holdings discussed were or will prove to be profitable or that the investment recommendations or decisions we make in the future will be profitable. A list of all securities held in this portfolio in the prior year is available upon request. Past performance does not guarantee future results and profitable results cannot be guaranteed.
Active Share: is a measure of the percentage of stock holdings in a manager’s portfolio that differs from the benchmark index. “Weighing Machine vs. Voting Machine”: In the short term, the market might be swayed by various factors like news and sentiment, and act like a “voting machine” or a popularity contest. Long term, the market will factor in the fundamentals and act like a weighing machine, and primarily reflect the corporate earnings trajectory.