De Novo Capital LLC

De Novo Capital LLC provides discretionary portfolio management primarily to individual and high-net-worth clients with a long-term investment horizon, managing roughly $2.8 million across a very small number of accounts. The firm focuses on constructing portfolios of individual stocks it believes are undervalued and may also hold cash equivalents, debt securities or options as market conditions warrant; it is compensated on an asset-based fee basis and does not provide standalone financial planning or broad asset-allocation services.

The firm follows a bottom-up, fundamental value approach, estimating intrinsic value from financial statements and qualitative business analysis and buying when market prices fall below those estimates, with an emphasis on multi-year holding periods. Portfolios are relatively concentrated and may include small-, mid- and large-cap domestic and foreign stocks (including microcap/OTC issues), which increases volatility and concentration risk; the adviser and principal routinely invest alongside clients and generally execute and allocate trades concurrently to mitigate conflicts.

A distinguishing detail is that the firm’s principal is licensed to practice law in California (while not affiliated with or compensated by a law firm), an uncommon professional background among peers. The firm operates as a solo advisor with a very small client roster, requires clients to use the adviser’s chosen custodian, provides a quarterly commentary in addition to custodian statements, and leaves proxy voting authority with clients rather than voting securities on their behalf.