Brookmont Increases Marketing Efforts As 3-Year Record Nears

Brookmont Capital Management is ready to increase its marketing to institutional investors as it reaches its three year track record at the end of the year.

The Dallas based firm, which offers a long, only dividend equity strategy, currently has $150 million in assets under management and recently opened a Chicago office to target institutional investors.

The firm, which opened its doors in late 2007 and launched its strategy on Jan. 1, 2008, was founded by CIO Robert Bugg, previously a senior investment manager in the asset management division of Comerica Bank, and Neal Scott, a principal and fixed income manager at the firm, who was previously with Morgan Keegan.

Scott said the firm's strategy focuses on companies with at least a 3% dividend.

"We do not care anything about a home run," Scott said, noting that the firm has a minimum 12-15 month watch period before a company can be added to the portfolio.

Scott said that Bugg's dividend expertise and his fixed income focus provide a distinct advantage to the firm when evaluating a company.

"We definitely look at a stock from both avenues," he said.

The strategy has garnered high rankings versus its peers for the one year period ending June 30, including being ranked as the top dividend focused investment product among all U.S. managers according to Morningstar. The strategy is also the fourth highest large cap value separate account manager out of 488 strategies.

As the firm's three year numbers quickly approach, Scott said the firm is finding "a lot of people who are, for lack of a better word, getting what we're doing."

He said that one of the areas investors have begun to recognize as important is cash flow, which is a major attraction to dividend strategies.

"We want to not only give you cash flow that you get to see, the dividend distributions in your portfolio, but also give you the ability to grow the portfolio going forward," he said.

Of the firm's assets, $25 million is from pensions and endowments.

The new Chicago office will be staffed by Lindsay Lowery, who joined the firm last year and handles institutional sales for the firm.

Lowery said the move to Chicago is designed to provide the firm diversification among its client base, which is largely in Dallas, as well as gain proximity to the Chicago consulting market.

"A lot of interest we have had has been from various consultants in the Chicago market," she said, adding that she will begin to focus on the emerging manager space as the firm nears its three year mark.