Riley: Providence Journal and Seth Magaziner Perfect Together
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Last week the Providence Journal Editorial Board embarrassed themselves once again. They endorsed Seth Magaziner for Treasurer over Ernie Almonte. Seth Magaziner, as readers of this column know, is a prevaricator in the style of family friend Bill Clinton. Readers should refer to my previous columns regarding Seth’s multiple lies. The Projo editorial board clearly did no homework at all. They didn’t ascertain what “strong returns” Seth produced probably because he has still never managed money. The difference between an “analyst” and a portfolio manager with a track record plus CFA charter is a mile wide. These sorts of distinctions are confusing to the Journal s board so they don’t even bother to look into it. To the investment profession Magaziner claims are a clear violation of the Charter he seeks the CFA. Seth was actually only an analyst in a junior position when he was hired, shortly after with Raimondo’s Point Judith Capital two years ago. He apparently analyzed financial stocks and claims to oversee $110 million in assets. But despite claiming “strong returns” he has never produced any proof.
Some claims here below:
From his treasurer website
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTAn investment professional with a strong track record, Seth will bring a steady hand to the state’s retirement system,.. Since returning home to Rhode Island, Seth has worked at Trillium Asset Management, a socially responsible investment firm with over one billion dollars of assets under management. As a Vice President at Trillium, Seth oversees more than one hundred million dollars of investments, and he has helped produce strong returns for retirement funds, religious organizations and nonprofit endowments.
From Projo endorsement
After Yale, he went to work for Trillium Asset Management, which manages more than $1 billion of assets. As a vice president of the firm, Mr. Magaziner oversaw more than $100 million in investments, helping produce strong returns.
I’m Doing Projo’s homework for them
In order to determine how Seth s pick as an analyst performed I downloaded the entire portfolio of Trillium Asset Management into a spreadsheet from the SEC filing Trillium made two weeks ago. I then segregated all of $1.2 billion in Trilliums holdings into 2 groups, financial stocks and all others. Lo and behold!, the dollar amount of Financial stocks held at Trillium is approximately $110 million. Exactly the amount that Seth claims to “oversee”.
Those stocks are listed in the table below in the share amounts held and the performance in 2014 which is almost over. The returns were anything but strong. Seth’s picks were awful.
Seth Lays an egg
The table below shows the year to date performance of all Seth Magaziners’ Stock Picks. As of today October 27, 2014.His picks are down 2% in 2014 compared to a gain of nearly 7% for the S&P 500. A 9% lag in performance would cost Rhode Islanders $ 720 million in one year alone. Nice job Projo on your research.
The Providence Journal completely blew this call , they even credited Magaziner with being Concerned with 5 and 6 % colas. Ernie Almonte was called in to testify in 2011 before Angel Taveras “Category 5 Hurricane “commission. Almonte’s more than an hour of testimony analyzing Providence issues, referred Providence 5% and 6% colas as outrageous and suggested a termination or cap on all Colas. In 2011 when Almonte was testifying, Seth was teaching kindergarten.
Two lazy prevaricators Projo and Magaziner “perfect together”.
As always, I back my opinions with facts and I am happy to produce them in a public way to anyone.
Michael G. Riley is vice chair at Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity, and is managing member and founder of Coastal Management Group, LLC. Riley has 35 years of experience in the financial industry, having managed divisions of PaineWebber, LETCO, and TD Securities (TD Bank). He has been quoted in Barron’s, Wall Street Transcript, NY Post, and various other print media and also appeared on NBC news, Yahoo TV, and CNBC.
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