One Stock Superinvestors Are Buying (7)

As part of the weekly research here at The Acquirer’s Multiple we’re always interested in superinvestors who hold the same stocks that appear in our Acquirer’s Multiple Stock Screeners, based on their latest 13F’s. Investors such as Warren Buffett, Joel Greenblatt, Carl Icahn, Jim Simons, Prem Watsa, Jeremy Grantham, Seth Klarman, Ray Dalio, and Howard Marks.

While doing this research we also uncovered a number of superinvestors that currently hold stocks that don’t appear in our screens at the moment. So we’re now providing a new weekly feature article called ‘One Stock Superinvestors Are Buying‘ which features one stock that appears in a number of superinvestor portfolos, and who’s buying it. This week we’ll take a look at:

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Class B (NYSE: BRK.B)

Berkshire Hathaway Inc is a holding company with a wide array of subsidiaries engaged in diverse activities. The firm’s core business segment is insurance, run primarily through Geico, Berkshire Hathaway Reinsurance Group and Berkshire Hathaway Primary Group. Berkshire has used the excess cash thrown off from these and its other operations over the years to acquire Burlington Northern Santa Fe (railroad), Berkshire Hathaway Energy (utilities and energy distributors), and the firms that make up its manufacturing, service, and retailing operations (which include five of Berkshire’s largest noninsurance pretax earnings generators: Precision Castparts, Lubrizol, Clayton Homes, Marmon and IMC/ISCAR). The conglomerate is unique in that it is run on a completely decentralized basis.

A quick look at the price chart below for Berkshire shows us that the stock is down 12% in the past twelve months.

(Source: Morningstar)

Superinvestors who currently hold positions in Berkshire include:

Bill Gates – 49,912,525 shares

Bill Ackman – 4,015,594 shares

Tom Russo – 2,206,875 shares

Cliff Asness – 2,189,857 shares

Chris Davis – 1,569,962 shares

Tom Gayner – 1,526,357 shares

Glenn Greenberg – 1,473,687 shares

Francois Rochon – 890,774 shares

Wally Weitz – 803,271 shares

John Rogers – 586,349 shares

John Hempton – 362,607 shares

Chuck Akre – 285,342 shares

Tweedy Browne – 243,999 shares

Guy Spier – 140,600 shares

Donald Yacktman – 132,589 shares