Fenimore (FAM) 13F (2026 Q1): A Quality-Compounder Book

Quality compounders from a patient boutique

Fenimore Asset Management, the upstate-New York firm behind the FAM Funds, has spent decades doing one thing: buying well-run, financially strong businesses and holding them for the long haul. Its 2026Q1 13F is a clean portrait of that approach, about $4.48 billion spread across 92 positions, weighted toward the kind of durable, cash-generative companies that quality investors favor. There is no swing-for-the-fences bet here; the largest holding, Ross Stores, is just 6.59% of reported value, and the book broadens out from there into a diversified slate of compounders.

The roster reads like a checklist of quality franchises: Ross Stores in off-price retail, Amphenol in connectors, Vulcan Materials in aggregates, Stryker in medical devices, Fastenal in industrial distribution, Markel in specialty insurance, Keysight, IDEX, Analog Devices, and Trane Technologies. These are mostly mid- and large-cap businesses with strong competitive positions and steady reinvestment, exactly what a long-horizon quality strategy is built to own.

A diversified book, not a concentrated bet

With 92 positions and a top holding under 7%, Fenimore runs a meaningfully diversified portfolio. The top ten cluster between roughly 3% and 6.6%, spreading conviction across industries, industrials, healthcare equipment, specialty insurance, building materials, rather than betting heavily on any single name. That structure reflects a manager comfortable owning a broad set of quality businesses and letting the group compound, accepting that no one position will dominate returns in exchange for steadier, more diversified exposure to the quality style.

A quarter of light trimming

The activity in the quarter was restrained, the texture of a low-turnover quality manager. Fenimore trimmed several holdings modestly, cutting Keysight by 15% of shares, Ross Stores by 11%, Trane Technologies by 11%, and Amphenol by 7%, while holding the bulk of the book, Vulcan, Stryker, Fastenal, Markel, IDEX, and Analog Devices, essentially flat. Reported value eased 6.6% on the quarter and has held in a tight $4.5 billion to $5 billion band for two years, the signature of a steady-handed strategy where most of the change comes from gentle valuation discipline rather than wholesale repositioning.

How to read a quality-compounder book

A filing like Fenimore's rewards looking at the whole rather than the parts. The value is in the composition, a curated list of durable businesses a quality team is content to own for years, and in the modest direction of the trims, which this quarter point to a bit of profit-taking in retail and select industrials. For investors using filings as an idea source, a diversified quality book like this is most useful as a vetted shortlist of compounders rather than a set of high-conviction single bets. You can explore the full 92-position book, the quarter-over-quarter changes, and the longer history on the Fenimore Asset Management filer page.