What are the sales, purchases, and holdings of some of the greatest investors like Buffett, Li Lu & Burry?
13F is the record of investors’ filing to the SEC for their US-based equities.
SEC Form 13F: What It Is, Filing Requirements, and Key Issues
Here are some of my favorite investors with the likes of Li Lu, Michael Burry, Warren Buffet, & Charlie Munger. I have also added Bill & Melinda Gates as there are some interesting activities.
13F reflects the holdings and I have highlighted some of the interesting activities (sales & purchases). As these took place in Q4/2023, it cannot be a timely tool but it helps to identify concerns and opportunities seen by these great investors.
Now. let us start with Mr Buffett (from Berkshire Hathaway).
Warren Buffett - Berkshire Hathaway
Observations:
Buffett continues to add Chevron and Occidental (oil & gas) into his portfolio. This implies that oil & gas are here to stay and these could be at good “attractive prices”.
It is interesting to see the trimming of Apple holdings. Since it is (merely) 1.09% of its holdings, it could just be some profit-taking, and portfolio re-balancing.
However, Buffett has sold all positions for D R Horton, Markel Group, StoneCo, and Globe Life. It is interesting as Berkshire typically holds its portfolio over a great length of time. Does this speak “pessimistically” for the sectors such as real estate and construction?
They have also reduced significantly their holdings in Paramount (news and media) and HP Inc. I do not think that these are reduced because of short-term volatility and maybe it is worth our time to look into the earnings and review its competitive advantages.
Mr Li Lu - Himalaya Capital Management
Observations:
There are no sales or purchases in Q4/2023 for Li Lu.
Li is also known as one of the top proteges of the late Charlie Munger and thus, it is interesting to note that there are no major changes to the portfolio.
However, I would be concerned about the holdings in the banking sector as I think that there could be more challenging days coming up starting with the end of the BTF Program in March 2024.
Li Lu is also the one who introduced Berkshire to other Asian stocks like BYD and probably the Asian market. As it is only for US stocks, thus, this is not a complete view of his total portfolio - with the absence of international equities.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust
Observations:
The sales are very interesting to me as they have exited some strong companies totally that include some members of the Magnificent 7, namely, a complete 100% exit of Meta, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, and Nvidia. From the recent runs, the Q4 sales do seem to be too early.
Jim Cramer names his 'Magnificent Seven' stocks that are the real deal
The Magnificent 7 includes Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Meta, Tesla & Alphabet (Google).
On top of this, they seem to have exited completely in sectors of
Banking & Finance (like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Invesco Banking ETF, Visa),
IT hardware (like CISCO, Oracle, ),
SaaS (Adobe, etc)
Oil & gas (Chevron, ExxonMobil, Total )
Chemicals (Eastman)
Pharmaceuticals (Merck, Pfizer)
Healthcare (CVS, Elevance Health, United Healthcare),
Consumer (like Johnson & Johnson, Unilever, Pepsico, P&G),
Retailers (like Target,
Defense (Lockheed, RTX)
From the list above, it looks like they are just cashing out totally.
It felt like the end of the world was coming from such sales.
In the holdings, Microsoft, Berkshire, Canadian National Railway, and Waste Management occupy 80% of the portfolio. Waste Management is a company of interest that I intend to research in greater detail.
They have kept faith in logistics players like FedEx and UPS and an Asia-based e-commerce player Coupang.
The only purchase is that of Veralto Group. This intrigues me to learn more about this company.
Michael Burry - Scion Asset Management
Observations:
Burry bought Chinese stocks (JD & BABA).
Is this an implication of the future value of the China market or these 2 players from the e-commerce space?
Burry added some of the Magnificent 7 into his portfolio with the likes of Alphabet and Amazon.
At the same time, Burry has added Citigroup - which has been going through major layoffs recently.
The other company of interest is Advance Auto Parts. Is there going to be greater demand for auto spares in the coming future? With the rising costs of living and auto affordability, this can be an interesting holding to monitor.
Conclusion
People buy stocks for one reason (to make money) but can sell them for a million reasons. Thus, we should not treat every sale as a bad thing. If there are 100% exit, this is a red flag that we should pursue (especially if we are still holding on to some of these stocks).
I typically refer to this 13F as a filtered list of stocks (from investors I look up to). From here, I will narrow down stocks of interest (to qualify and disqualify).
Hopefully, this list can give us some ideas for our investing.
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