Average Annual Total Returns (%)

Dear Shareholder:

Performance Overview

The FPA Crescent Fund – Institutional Class (“Fund” or “Crescent”) gained 5.54% in Q3 2025 and 15.32% in the trailing twelve months.

Its twelve-month return was 88.7% of the global market (i.e., MSCI AWCI, the “ACWI”), outperforming its 65.4% average net risk exposure during the same period.

Performance versus Illustrative Indices (%)1
Q3 2025Trailing 12-month
FPA Crescent5.5415.32
FPA Crescent – Long Equity7.9721.71
MSCI ACWI7.6217.27
S&P 5008.1217.60
60% MSCI ACWI / 40% Bloomberg U.S. Agg5.3611.42
60% S&P 500 / 40% Bloomberg U.S. Agg5.6611.67

Portfolio & Market Discussion

Crescent’s top five performers contributed 6.65% to its trailing twelve-month return while its bottom five detracted 2.58%. 

Trailing Twelve-Month Top and Bottom Contributors (%) as of September 30, 20252
Top ContributorsPerformance ContributionPercent of PortfolioBottom ContributorsPerformance ContributionPercent of Portfolio
Alphabet2.124.8Int’l Flavors & Fragrances-1.051.9
Citigroup1.482.6Comcast-0.622.4
TE Connectivity1.182.5CarMax-0.491.0
JDE Peet’s0.981.3Pernod Ricard-0.220.7
Meta Platforms0.893.1Glencore-0.211.0
6.6514.3-2.587.0

We will review the following companies that have impacted portfolio performance but that we have not recently discussed.³

Despite anxiety about Alphabet’s future that has colored investors’ views of the company, its stock price has risen seventeen-fold since our initial purchases in 2011. Recent concerns include competitive threats in search, stemming from competing AI models, as well as antitrust scrutiny in the US and Europe. Additionally, there is an open question about the likely return on the billions spent on moonshot investments, among other issues. Its stock has risen 28% year-to-date and 57% since the end of Q1, when it was one of the Fund’s larger performance detractors in the trailing-twelve-month period, mainly due to a judge’s Q3 ruling that declined to force a breakup of Chrome and Android. While legal and competitive challenges persist, Alphabet continues to enhance its existing search offering with new AI features that have been well-received and are continually evolving. Meanwhile, YouTube is now the most-watched media outlet on the planet, with more than one trillion hours of video viewed, and arguably remains under monetized. We expect its cloud offering to continue to grow and eventually achieve the higher margins of its larger peers. Furthermore, the value of Waymo’s leading self-driving technology is evident to those of us at FPA who have experienced its autonomous ride-share service, and its bright future is likely not fully reflected in its stock price. The Fund therefore continues to maintain a position in Alphabet, although we have sold some shares over time.

Citigroup has improved its return on tangible equity (ROTE) compared to industry peers. In addition, regulatory changes in the US have increased the normal level of ROTE for US-based banks. The combination of a low starting valuation, demonstrated operating improvement, and an improved regulatory environment have resulted in strong share-price performance over the past twelve months.

JDE Peet’s is a pure-play coffee and tea company, with a presence in over 100 markets and a portfolio of 50+ brands. Following a period of material underperformance, JDE Peet’s changed management and agreed to be acquired by Keurig Dr. Pepper. The combination of improved management and agreement to sell the business led to strong performance over the past twelve months.

International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF) is a leading producer of ingredients for food, beverage, personal care, health, and household products industries. Its products are ubiquitous across many household staples, including the enzyme used in half of cold-water laundry detergents, another enzyme used in one-fifth of the global beer market, and one-third of yogurts use an IFF culture. IFF has faced challenges: its prior management was unfortunately reckless in capital allocation, making poor acquisitions and failing to manage its diverse global enterprise effectively. This transformed a high-margin, unlevered company into one with a lower margin and greater leverage. However, a new CEO has renewed the company’s focus on being best-in-class operationally, with a smaller suite of products. IFF has sold and is expected to continue to sell non-core assets, which would decrease the firm’s leverage and likely improving margins. The company has burned investors, leading many to adopt a wait-and-see attitude. IFF’s current ~$4 of free cash flow could increase to $5-6 in a few years, and if successful, its P/E ratio should also rise to be more in line with its peers. With its stock currently at $61, we don’t see much downside and, should IFF execute well, we can reasonably see a path to the stock price doubling over the next few years (inclusive of its free cash flow).⁴

CarMax, the largest retailer of used cars in the US, has been a disappointment. We entered 2025 with hopes that an improved omnichannel offering in an improving used vehicle market would drive increased sales volumes, market share, and profit growth. Instead, we’ve watched management make a series of missteps. The company withdrew its 2030 unit sales targets at the beginning of the year, citing tariff-related uncertainty expected to have little impact five years from now—not particularly confidence-boosting, especially when their competitors retained their stated medium-term goals. Management mistakenly expected their strong fiscal first quarter to continue. They overbought inventory at elevated prices, which they were then forced to work through in the second quarter, causing them to lose market share. Investors have punished the company for its mistakes, and shares have declined by 47% year to date. Despite our disappointment in management’s execution, the company’s share price appears inexpensive to us. CarMax trades for roughly 12x forward consensus earnings and 1.1x tangible book value. Two independent directors bought shares in early October, seemingly supporting that view. The company also increased its share repurchase program, though we wish they would have held off on repurchases until the market was aware of the current disappointing news. We still believe that CarMax has built a differentiated used vehicle retail business and could see substantial share price improvement if the company rights itself, but operational execution needs to significantly improve.

Closing

While the world changes around us and investors’ interpretations of those shifts swing markets, we maintain a continuity that has been our hallmark for more than three decades. As Robert Plant sang, “The Song Remains the Same.” Day in and day out, our research team seeks to improve our understanding of the best global businesses while selectively conducting work on more episodic commercial opportunities. We look forward to sharing a more detailed view of our portfolio positioning and the factors that influence it in our year-end commentary. Until then.

Respectfully submitted,

FPA Crescent Portfolio Managers
October 28, 2025

FPA Crescent Fund Portfolio Highlights