Friday, February 15, 2008

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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK) revealed its holdings for the quarter ended December 31st in its required Schedule 13F filing with the SEC. The billionaire investor revealed two new stakes and several raised stakes, sending shares in those companies higher on the day. Buffett has built up the best track record on Wall Street and has consistently beat the market over the past decades (excluding losses incurred during his minor foray into currency trading). This has made Buffett (rightly) one of the most watched investors on the street.

Kraft Foods Inc. (NYSE: KFT), the Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE: MO) spin-off, was Buffett’s largest new position. News of his investment sent shares more than 5.6 percent higher in early trading as the legendary investor bought up 132,393,800 shares of the firm - making him the company’s largest shareholder with an 8.5 percent stake. Kraft has long been seen as a value play since its spin-off from Altria; in fact, spin-offs in general tend to outperform the market during their first few years as an independent company. Simply put, Altria shareholders who received shares in the spin-off may have sold without justification while management is typically well-incentivized to succeed. Combined, these factors make KFT a stock that is definitely worth watching over the next few years!

GlaxoSmithKline plc (NYSE: GSK) was another one of Buffett’s new positions. Like Kraft Foods, news of his investment sent shares higher by nearly two percent on the day as the investor bought up 1,510,500 ADR shares in the pharmaceutical giant. Shares in the company have dropped 11.5 percent since it announced a profit warning back in early January while the stock has been trading down since early last year. Despite Glaxo’s poor 2008 outlook, the company does hold a solid drug portfolio and the stock appears to be trading at cheap levels. Combined, these factors make GSK a stock that is definitely worth tracking over the long-term!

The famous investor also raised his stakes in several companies, sending them higher on the day. including:

  • Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (NYSE: BNI)
  • CarMax Inc. (NYSE: KMX)
  • Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ)
  • US Bancorp (NYSE: USB)
  • Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC)
  • Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE: SNY)

In the end, Warren Buffett is widely considered to be one of the best investors on Wall Street, which earned him the nickname “Oracle of Omaha”. As a result, the Schedule 13F filings that reveal his holdings are ones that are definitely worth watching each quarter. You can track these filings for free and setup e-mail alerts at SECFilings.com and you can view the rest of his holdings by checking out the Schedule 13F filing!

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Ambac Financial Group, Inc. (ABK)
MBIA Inc. (MBI)
HCC Insurance Holdings, Inc. (HCC)
RLI Corp. (RLI)
Selective Insurance Group (SIGI)
Max Capital Group Ltd. (MXGL)

2/15/2008 5:15:22 PM UTC  #    Comments [0]  |  Trackback
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