Morgan Stanley’s Lynch Is Beating 99% of Peers With Growth Play

(Bloomberg) -- Dennis Lynch is using companies with “secular growth opportunities” to beat 99% of his peers.

The head of Counterpoint Global at Morgan Stanley Investment Management oversees $44 billion, with a portfolio currently up 44% year-to-date that includes stocks such as Amazon.com Inc., Shopify Inc., Slack Technologies Inc., Zoom Video Communications Inc. and Moderna Inc.

“Generally speaking, what we try to do is collect unique companies and own them for many years and by unique I mean ones we think have durable, sustainable competitive advantages,” he said in a Bloomberg TV interview with Erik Schatzker.

Lynch said he started off the year with stakes in those firms because of their growth prospects, which only accelerated as the coronavirus pandemic spread across the globe.

Although he typically doesn't invest in many biotech companies, he made a bet on Moderna Inc., which has recently surged on news of its vaccine development.

“We tend to look for companies that have broad solutions that might have different types of applications as opposed to betting on just one drug and one outcome,” he said.

Despite signs of the tech rally beginning to fade and questions about a crackdown by regulators, Lynch is still bullish on Amazon, due to its competitive advantages in solving real-world logistical issues as well as founder and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos, who is “willing to make short-term investments to get to a much bigger end game.”

Overall, Lynch attributes his success to an open-mindedness and willingness to think longer term.

“We aren't dogmatic, and going to look for where the opportunities are as opposed to thinking there is one formula code that will always work in every environment,” he said.