First Pacific Advisors 13F (2026 Q1): Value With a Quality Streak

Value investing with a quality streak

First Pacific Advisors, the Los Angeles firm best known for its flexible, contrarian value approach, occupies an interesting middle ground in the value world. It is not a deep-value bargain hunter chasing the cheapest statistical names, nor a pay-any-price quality-growth shop. Instead, FPA looks for good businesses trading at sensible prices, willing to hold both unloved value situations and high-quality compounders when the price is right, and famously willing to hold cash when it is not. Its 2026Q1 13F, about $7.14 billion across 85 positions, captures that blended philosophy in a single snapshot.

The top of the book mixes the two strands neatly. Analog Devices leads at 7.68%, followed by Alphabet (counting both share classes, well over 12% combined), International Flavors & Fragrances, Meta Platforms, Citigroup, TE Connectivity, Becton Dickinson, Amazon, and Comcast. Quality technology and communications sit alongside classic value names like Citigroup and Comcast, a portfolio that refuses to be pigeonholed into a single style box.

Concentrated conviction at the top

While the full book runs to 85 names, the conviction is concentrated near the top: the largest handful of positions, led by Analog Devices and the combined Alphabet stake, carry real weight. That structure reflects a manager willing to size up its best ideas rather than spread thin. The blend of an analog-semiconductor leader, the dominant search-and-advertising platform, a flavors-and-fragrances specialist, and a money-center bank shows FPA hunting for value and quality across very different corners of the market, united only by the discipline of paying a sensible price.

Trimming the winners

The quarter's activity leaned toward taking profits in names that had performed well. FPA trimmed Analog Devices by 8% of shares, Alphabet's Class A by 12%, Citigroup by 9%, and TE Connectivity by 7%, while holding International Flavors, Meta, Becton Dickinson, Amazon, and Comcast essentially flat. Reducing several winners modestly while leaving the rest of the book intact is the texture of a valuation-disciplined manager, harvesting gains where prices have run ahead of value rather than wholesale repositioning. Reported value eased 6% on the quarter and has held in a $7 billion to $7.6 billion band for two years, the steadiness of a patient, price-conscious strategy.

How to read a style-flexible value book

FPA's filing is a reminder that not every value manager fits a tidy label. The productive way to read a style-flexible book is to look at the character of the holdings and the direction of the trades together: here, a willingness to own quality compounders and unloved value names side by side, paired with disciplined trimming of what has worked. For investors using filings as a research input, FPA offers a curated list of businesses a respected, valuation-focused team finds attractive across the quality-value spectrum, neither chasing the cheapest nor overpaying for the best. You can explore the full 85-position book, the quarter-over-quarter changes, and the longer history on the First Pacific Advisors filer page.