N.O. investment firm touted by Washington Post columnist

During this parade season, a New Orleans business, not pleasure, attracted one nationally syndicated columnist.

In a March 3 column in The Washington Post, James K. Glassman spoke with St. Denis Sandy J. Villere at his namesake asset management firm on Baronne Street the Friday before Mardi Gras.

The Villeres were hard at work making money, which they do very well, Glassman wrote.

Founded in 1911, the St. Denis J. Villere Co. is the asset manager of choice for the city's old families, Glassman wrote. He said the company manages $1.1 billion in about 400 private accounts, held by wealthy individuals, businesses and institutions.

The column details Villere's investment strategy of buying the small-cap stocks Wall Street ignores.

The secret to Villere's success is combining well-chosen - and micro-cap stocks with bonds. The result, in recent years at least, is a portfolio that produces returns greater than a stock portfolio alone but with lower risk or volatility, Glassman wrote.

The column also mentioned Villere's investments in Louisiana companies, including Covington-based SCP Pools, Villere's seventh- largest holding; Petroleum Helicopters of Lafayette; and Houma-based Gulf Island Fabrication, which makes drilling platforms.

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