Should You Hold Rentokil Initial Plc (RTO)?
White Falcon Capital Management, an investment fund manager, released its second quarter 2024 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. It was a difficult quarter for the fund. In the second quarter, the fund returned -5.9% compared to a 5.3% return for the S&P 500 (CAD), 3.7% for the MSCI All Country (CAD), and -0.5% for the S&P TSX TR. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2024.
White Falcon Capital Management highlighted stocks like Rentokil Initial plc (NYSE:RTO) in the second quarter 2024 investor letter. Rentokil Initial plc (NYSE:RTO) is a route-based services provider. The one-month return of Rentokil Initial plc (NYSE:RTO) was 3.35%, and its shares lost 13.94% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On September 5, 2024, Rentokil Initial plc (NYSE:RTO) stock closed at $31.43 per share with a market capitalization of $15.788 billion.
White Falcon Capital Management stated the following regarding Rentokil Initial plc (NYSE:RTO) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
"Rentokil Initial plc (NYSE:RTO) is a global business services company specializing in pest control and hygiene services. These revenue streams are relatively stable and resilient, even during economic downturns. Rentokil’s moat comes from its scale, network density, technology and established brand name. Rentokil typically trades for ~25x earnings but is currently available for 19x 2024E earnings and 12x our estimate of 2026E earnings.
As we have described above, something must be going ‘wrong’ if a good business is available for a low multiple. Rentokil acquired Terminix, the largest pest services provider in the US, and has encountered some integration challenges. Our due diligence on Rentokil has led us to believe that they can successfully integrate Terminix and meet their targets. Importantly, the valuation discounts many of these issues, creating a 'heads I win, tails I do not lose much' scenario. In the appendix to this letter, we re-produce an article that we wrote for the Globe & Mail on Rentokil. While it's not our typical long-form report, we hope you'll still find it enjoyable."
A specialist cleaning service team in full protective equipment removing hazardous waste.
Rentokil Initial plc (NYSE:RTO) is not on our list of 31 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 18 hedge fund portfolios held Rentokil Initial plc (NYSE:RTO) at the end of the second quarter which was 20 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Rentokil Initial plc (NYSE:RTO) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we discussed Rentokil Initial plc (NYSE:RTO) and shared Cooper Investors Global Equities Fund's views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2024 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.