13F of some superinvestors (Q1/2024 updates) - Buffet, Ackman, Gates, Li Lu, Munger

What is the 13F filing?

13F is a quarterly report that lists the various assets under management (AUM). Though it is dated (not real-time), it allows us to know the activities and holdings of various investment institutions with over $100 million AUM from the previous quarter. This requires the companies to declare all American assets. Thus, a company that owns international assets (from other countries) do not need to reveal their non-USA holdings.

How to make use of 13F filings?

I will use this as a filter to identify stocks that have garnered the interest of some of my favourite investors. Stocks that surfaced would require more research before I put them on the shortlist.

Value investors buy equities with a margin of safety. I typically use the price range (during the previous quarter) as a guide for fair value.

We buy stocks typically for future gains but we could sell stocks for a million reasons. Is it for tax loss harvesting, or rebalancing of the portfolio? Do they have insights that we do not have? Has the business lost some of the business edge?

Portfolios of superinvestors

Here are some of the superinvestors whom I pay attention to. For most of them, I will list down their buy/sell activities from the previous quarter. Some of them like Mr Li Lu did not make any transactions in the previous quarter. In these cases, I will list down their portfolio instead.

Hopefully, we can find some interesting leads for our portfolio.

They have reduced their holdings in Microsoft and Berkshire. These are interesting moves as I am expecting much more upside for both stocks. I wonder if the exit of Ms Melinda has anything to do with these.

Mr Ackman made a complete exit from Lowe’s - a construction company. Are there some risks for the construction and real estate market? Chipotle's stock has grown significantly over the last few years. It is a more affordable option for food in America, something that is more needed as the cost of living increases. Thus, this is an interesting move.

Berkshire has exited HP Inc completely and has sold 88% of their positions in Paramount. Are these red flags that we need to pay attention to?

I have learnt over time to watch what investors do instead of what they say. In the case of Apple, could this be due to erosion of their business moat? Personally, I have exited all my positions at Apple.

Some of the stocks of interest are Chubb and Occidental.

Michael Burry is the investor from “The Big Shot” fame. He has since become a cult figure whose views can be polarizing.

I am intrigued that he emptied his portfolios of companies like Alphabet, Amazon, Oracle and CVS.

He has poured money into Chinese companies like JD, BABA and Baidu. The additional positions of Citibank came at a time when regional banks were struggling with CRE and high interest rates.

There are definitely some interesting moves that require more research.

Mr Munger has passed on recently. In the previous quarter, his portfolio has sold shares from banks and Alibaba. This would deserve some deep dives - to see if there are issues with fundamental and business moats.

Mr Li is seen as the prodigy of Mr Charlie Munger and he has helped them enter international markets like China with a previous purchase of BYD shares. For Q1/2024, there were no activities in his US-based assets.

Other observations about the Q1/2024 portfolios of these superinvestors

The above list is some of the most owned stocks by the superinvestors. The top “big bets” show the maximum % of some stocks in their total US portfolio. There is also a counter for the number of superinvestors who own these stocks.

The above shows the top buys from Q1/2024 and by percentage. The bottom section shows the top buys from the last 2 quarters and by percentage.

My investing muse

I hope that we have spotted some interesting transactions. With some research, I trust that this can provide some leads for us or at least create some interest in a few new stocks.

I recommend researching at least 5 years of performance so that we can better qualify the businesses. In the current season, I would avoid business with a higher proportion of debts/liabilities. Let us do our diligence before we take further action.

@TigerStars

$Alphabet(GOOG)$

$Berkshire Hathaway(BRK.B)$

$Microsoft(MSFT)$

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  • AlexTeddySG
    ·05-20
    TOP
    Good article. 13F reporting is important piece in understanding HFs strategy and large capital movement. As one who worked on 13F reporting system, I got oppurtunity to peek into the internals. My findings - these reportings are NOT necessarily acurate and SEC neither has infra or resources to review these reports. Secondly the threshold of 100mil is too outdated and 13F reporting needs new changes. Thirdly, these reportings are 3 months in the past - given the current age, where trading has picked up a lot, great amount of holdings get dumped out in next quarter- so 13F can be misleading - HF might has accumulated last quarter but might be selling off this quarter. So 13F reports must be read with some caveats. Hope it helps
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    • KYHBKO
      thank you for your invaluable sharing. blessed to be in the Tiger community
      05-20
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  • bouncee
    ·05-20
    TOP
    Interesting analysis of the 13F filings from these superinvestors.
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    • KYHBKO
      thank you.  hope that this is helpful
      05-24
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  • WINTERIN
    ·05-20
    TOP
    Interesting to see the holdings and activities of these superinvestors.
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    • KYHBKO
      thanks.  hope that we find other opportunities for investing
      05-24
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