Expertise & Collaboration
Our diverse, disciplined team works together to build and maintain concentrated portfolios of what we believe are the highest-quality companies worldwide.
- Location: Boca Raton, FL
- Head of Team: Damon Ficklin, Portfolio Manager & Analyst
- Average Team Member Experience: 15 years (as of 09-30-2024)
Our Investment Philosophy
Concentrated Portfolio: High Active Share
Risk Management: “Don’t Lose” Mentality
Long Holding/Compounding Period: Time Arbitrage
Outcome Orientation: “Weighing Machine vs. Voting Machine”
Meet the Team
APPROACH
Our Strategic Approach
Large Company Growth Stock Selection Process
We select stocks through our time-tested process, fine-tuned over three decades. Our in-depth research
and stringent guardrails support objective screening and monitoring. We identify and invest in only our best ideas—companies we believe demonstrate competitive advantages and sustainable growth potential across long 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 09/30/2024 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.
ICON is an Ireland-based leading contract research organization. It provides outsourced services for the planning, enrollment, and execution of clinical trials for the biomedical industry. Over time, we believe ICON will benefit from its scale, network, and expertise as the trend toward outsourcing increases and R&D spending grows over time.
We are committed to the pursuit of adding value and growing the assets of our clients over the long term.
Our Team
An Experienced, Research-Driven Team
Recent Perspectives
Thought CapitalWhy our investment team is excited about the untapped growth potential of hyperscale cloud businesses.
Strategies
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.