John Gomez, former President of Nuveen affiliate Santa Barbara Asset Management, launched investment boutique Brentview Investment Management in June 2019. James Boothe, who most recently served as CIO at Santa Barbara and was the sole Portfolio Manager for all the firm’s strategies, including the Dividend Growth Strategy that he developed in 2004, joined Brentview as CIO and Portfolio Manager along with Hai Vu, former Director of Research at Santa Barbara.
Despite the backdrop of record volatility, the Brentview Dividend Growth strategy outperformed the S&P 500, our primary index in the first quarter of 2020. On a gross basis our Dividend Growth strategy returned -18.25% vs. the S&P 500 total return of -19.60%. The year started out with typical seasonal strength as the month of January has historically been positive. Ultimately the otherwise complacent stock market was shaken as volatility surged as the quarter progressed. During the month of March, data shared from global health organizations underscored the quick spread of the COVID-19 virus. This news understandably caused concern among investors and equity markets responded with the highest measured volatility for the S&P 500 since 1928 as seen in (Chart1). We are grateful that our portfolio is constructed and designed with risk management in mind. During the month of March alone the Dividend Growth strategy had a gross return of -10.88% vs. -12.35% for the S&P 500. Ultimately our investment philosophy of “bend but don’t break” has designed a portfolio that drove our quarterly outperformance during the most stressed month in history.
