Weitz Buys Motorola Solutions, Twenty-First Century Fox; Sells Sapient

Updated on

Wally Weitz reported that the equity portfolio of his firm, Weitz Investment Management has a market value of approximately $3.58 billion based on its 13F filing for the fourth quarter of 2014.

The filing showed that Weitz acquired a position in 12 stocks, added his stockholdings in 31 equities, reduced his stake 18 companies and sold out 6 stocks.

Weitz’ largest stockholdings

The largest stockholding of Weitz is Liberty Global (5,030,000 Class C ordinary shares followed by Berkshire Hathaway (1,435,171 Class B shares) and Valeant Pharmaceuticals (1,378,806 shares).

His fourth and fifth largest positions are Liberty Interactive Group (5,297,920 shares) and Express Scripts Holding Company (1,684,987 shares), respectively.

Weitz’ five major new stockholdings

During the quarter, Weitz five major stockholdings include Motorola Solutions, Twenty-First Century Fox (Class A shares), Liberty Broadband (Class C shares), MasterCard and Core Laboratories.

Weitz owns 1,016,270 shares of Motorola Solutions worth approximately $68.17 million. The board of directors of the company approved a regular quarterly dividend of $0.34 per share on Thursday. The dividend is payable to stockholders of record at the close of business on March 13.

He believes that Motorola Solutions has above average “moat,” good management and a shareholder-friendly capital allocation policy. According to him, Motorola Solutions is a high-quality business.

Weitz purchased 1,600,960 Class A shares of Twenty-First Century Fox with a market value of about $61.48 million. The stock price of the company was down by more than 1% to $34.41 on Thursday.

Last week, Twenty-First Century Fox reported that its operating income before depreciation and amortization (OIBDA) increased 12% to $1.72 billion for the quarter ended December 31, 2014. Its quarterly income from continuing operations was $2.89 per share on $8.06 billion in revenue.

The board of directors of the company also declared a semi-annual dividend of $0.15 per share to shareholders of record of March 11. The dividend will be paid on April 15.

Weitz bought 1,201, 968 Class C shares of Liberty Broadband worth approximately $59.93 million. Last month, the company completed the rights offering of more than 17.27 million Class C shares to rights holders exercising basic, and if applicable oversubscription privileges.

The stock price of Liberty Broadband increased 1.52% to $50 per share on Thursday. Over the past 52-weeks, the shares of the company traded from $42.12 to as much as $54.74 per share.  Liberty Media divested Liberty Broadband and issued Class C shares on May last year.

Weitz purchased 284,120 shares of Mastercard worth approximately $24.48 million. The stock price of the credit card company rose almost 4% to $87.52 per share on Thursday.

Analysts at Citigroup maintained their Buy rating for the shares of Mastercard with a price target of $94. Last month, the company reported better-than-expected earnings of $0.69 per share on $2.42 billion in revenue. Analysts have a consensus estimate of $0.67 in earnings per share on $2.40 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter.

During the quarter, Weitz acquired 148,500 shares of Core Laboratories worth about $17.87 million. The company provides proprietary and patented reservoir description, production enhancement and reservoir management services to the oil and gas industry.

Weitz initiated a position in Core Laboratories because its stock price dropped significantly. Over the past 52-weeks, the stock traded between $87.27 and $221 per share. The stock closed $108.53 per share on Thursday.

Core Laboratories is one of the few stocks in the oil industry picked by Weitz. He believed that the conditions in the “oil patch” could change rapidly, and the stocks “might recover in short order. He said,” If the recovery is measured in years, we believe we have the right companies at the right prices to earn good returns over an extended holding period.”

Weitz’ sold out positions

Weitz sold out his entire stake in Sapient, FTI Consulting, CACI International, Hewlett-Packard, Liberty Tripadvisor Holdings and ProShares Short 20+ Year Treasury ETF.

Leave a Comment