28 February 2023
Commentaire de gestion Amplegest Pricing Power - AC - February 2023
The month of February 2023 marks a change in the trend observed since last October: namely, a more resilient inflationlast October: namely, more resilient inflation than expected. Combined with strong employment figures, this datathese data support a more restrictive monetary policy of the US and European central banks andand European central banks and, as a result, a rise in interest rates. The fundAmplegest Pricing Power fund gained +2.1% over the month compared to +1.9% for its benchmark.In the context described, the value style (driven by financials) outperformed thegrowth style.During this month of earnings releases, the stocks with strong pricing power that we have selected wereselected were generally well oriented. Among the industrials, we note the good results ofof Legrand and Schneider in the electrical sector, as well as encouraging results from MTU and Airbus in theMTU and Airbus in the aeronautics sector: the former continue to benefit fromtrends for reduced energy loss, while the latter are seeing continued demand for new capacity fromairlines' demand for new capacity continues at a sustained level for 2023.Defensive stocks that underperformed in January are recovering, buoyed by good quarterlysuch as Wolters Kluwer, Pernod Ricard, Campari and Linde (which we retain in the fund).(which we are keeping in the fund despite its future single listing in the US).At the other end of the spectrum, both Smurfit Kappa and EssilorLuxottica published unsurprising results and did notsurprise and did not give any guidance for 2023. The health care sector underperformed overall, as illustrated by the latter as well as Carl Zeiss, ICON and Biomérieux. Finally,we strengthened Adyen after its below-expectations publication: we see growth opportunities and theWe view the growth opportunities and the management's decision to invest in them positively.Within the fund, we initiated a position in the German group Atoss Software: a publisher ofof SAAS software for human resources management. The company's pricing poweris demonstrated by the significant productivity gains brought by their tool, which allows them toto position themselves as a partner of choice for their customers. The management sees its sales19% annual sales growth for the next few years, with definite operational leverage. Impactedby its status as a growth stock, the stock has been derated by almost 50% in 2022. ForNevertheless, the case offers strong growth and operating leverage potential in the long term.