It seems wise to follow what the most successful investors have been buying and selling. US Investment managers are required to file quarterly 13F reports detailing their holdings which gives investors a small insight into what the gurus have been doing.

Second-quarter filings for the end of June were released on 14 August and reveal some intriguing moves.

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B:NYSE) chairman Warren Buffett grabbed all the headlines following a near-halving of his stake in technology giant Apple (APPL:NASDAQ), although the position remains Berkshire’s largest quoted holding at just under a third of the public equities portfolio.

The sale boosted Berkshire’s cash pile to a record $277 billion at the end of June and consequently almost equals the total value of the group’s equity holdings, worth $285 billion.

More interestingly perhaps is Berkshire’s purchase of 690,000 shares in specialist beauty retailer Ulta Beauty (ULTA:NASDAQ) for around $266 million.

It looks like a classically opportunistic Buffett move given the shares have fallen around 42% since March, dragging the PE (price to earnings) ratio down to 14.7 from almost 20 times.

The business has grown sales and earnings in double-digits and achieves healthy returns on equity which have averaged 46% over the last five years.

Meanwhile, billionaire investor Bill Ackman revealed his first new holdings in over a year after taking a $239 million position in embattled sportswear giant Nike (NKE:NYSE) and a $321 million stake in investment management company  Brookfield (BN:NYSE).

Nike’s growth has stumbled in the last two years in the face of increased competition from the likes of Adidas (ADS:ETR) and On Holding (ONON:NYSE), prompting the company to launch cheaper shoes.

Ackman first invested in Nike in 2017 and rode the position to a $100 million profit before selling out.

Fellow hedge fund manager David Tepper at Appaloosa Management sold down some of his largest holdings including Alibaba (BABA:NYSE), Amazon.com (AMZN:NASDAQ), Microsoft (MSFT:NASDAQ), Meta Platforms (META:NASDAQ) and Alphabet (GOOG:NASDAQ) and made a big percentage increase in ride-sharing group Lyft (LYFT:NASDAQ).

Activist investor Nelson Peltz at Trian Fund Management reduced his stake in Walt Disney Co (DIS:NYSE) by 92% after he failed to convince shareholders to appoint himself and former Disney chief finance officer Jay Rasulo to the board in a proxy battle.

New holdings include do-it-yourself moving and storage operator U-Haul (UHAL:NYSE) and pest control and hygiene company Rentokil Initial (RTO). 

‹ Previous2024-08-22Next ›