Looking forward, Sass says he sees shares rising in several sectors that stand to benefit from consolidation. Memory-chip maker Micron Technology Inc. and American Airlines Group Inc. are key picks in their respective industries, with the latter getting an extra boost from a drop in fuel costs.
A graduate of Brooklyn College who now chairs the school’s endowment investment committee, Sass was a stock analyst at Argus Research Co. early in his career. He covered a number of industries, including technology. Back when color TV was cutting edge, Sass learned about trouble at Motorola Inc. by talking to a cabbie who’d been laid off from the company’s picture-tube plant.
Tech Disruptions
Ari Sass, Martin’s son and a senior vice president of M.D. Sass, is also focused on how changing technology separates winners from losers. He points to his decision to get rid of the firm’s in-house technology department and move to services based in the cloud. “We spend all this money on real estate, and we put a server here?” Ari, 41, says of their offices near Rockefeller Center in New York. “Our competency is not providing power and cooling and electricity.”
One potential winner amid shifts in technology is NXP Semiconductors NV, the younger Sass says. The Eindhoven, Netherlands–based supplier of sensors and communications devices to the auto industry stands to grow as cars become more computerized. Conversely, Gogo Inc. is likely to face stiffer competition. The Itasca, Illinois–based provider of Internet service in passenger planes was a successful short for the firm in 2014. “If you like dial-up connectivity in the air, that’s who you go to,” he says. “We think that game’s kind of over.”
As his father’s designated successor, Ari says the firm’s focus will remain on picking stocks. That’s why he’s spent time getting to know the operational side of the business. “I have a better grasp of the firm overall as someone who’s going to be here for the long term,” he says.