Berkowitz Dumps Berkshire Stake; Bets Big Elsewhere
Tuesday February 17, 9:06 am ET
By the tickerspy.com Staff
Legendary fund manager Bruce Berkowitz was buying during a grizzly fourth quarter as value opportunities abounded. However, Berkowitz also dumped all but a fraction of his stake in Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A - News, BRK-B - News).
Regarding the reduction in the Berkshire stake, which began early in 2008, Berkowitz had told his Fairholme Fund (Nasdaq: FAIRX - News) shareholders, "We made this move because we cannot see how the company can replicate its past stellar performance given its current size and the age of its key personnel."
Meanwhile, Berkowitz, known for his prowess as a value-focused investor, was redeploying his cash elsewhere. "As the crowd sold, we bought common stocks of essential health care, defense, and infrastructure-related companies," Berkowitz wrote in his annual letter to Fairholme Fund (Nasdaq: FAIRX - News) shareholders for the financial year ended November 30th, 2008.
Looking at Fairholme's end-of-2008 holdings, Berkowitz opened new stakes in credit card company American Express (NYSE: AXP - News) and health insurer Humana (NYSE: HUM - News).
Fairholme's interest in the aerospace sector, which emerged in late 2008, also continued, with Berkowitz adding to his stakes in Boeing (NYSE: BA - News) and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC - News).
Meanwhile, Fairholme also added to stakes in diversified conglomerate Leucadia (NYSE: LUK - News), independent energy company Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE: CNQ - News), and health insurer Wellpoint (NYSE: WLP - News). Fairholme was trimming its stake in pharmaceutical company Pfizer (NYSE: PFE - News), though the stock ended up remaining the fund's top holding at year-end.
Looking at tickerspy.com's graph charting the performance of Fairholme's end-of-2008 holdings so far in 2009, one can see that the holdings are staying ahead of the broader market. If you want to see how your performance stacks up to Fairholme's or just see some of the other stocks it's invested in, visit tickerspy.com to see the mutual fund's top holdings and a chart of their combined performance.
Pro portfolio performance is based on institutions' top-15 holdings as disclosed in quarter-end filings with the SEC. Pro performance does not take into account additional holdings beyond the top 15 nor does it include positions that are not required to be disclosed by the SEC. As such, Pro portfolio performance should be considered an approximation and not a precise record of how an institution has performed over time.
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