Tweedy Browne reported that its equity portfolio has a market value of approximately $3.9 billion based on its 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the fourth quarter of 2014.
The filing showed that Tweedy Browne acquired a position in one company, increased its stockholdings in two stocks. Tweedy Browne reduced its stake in 38 equities and sold out one stock.
Tweedy Browne’s new stockholdings
During the quarter, Tweedy Browne acquired 292,573 shares of AGCO Corporation, a distributor and manufacturer of agricultural equipment and related replacement parts worldwide. Its stake in the company is worth approximately $13.22 million.
UBS Analyst Steven Fisher recently reiterated his Hold rating for the shares of AGCO Corporation with a $49 price target. The company reported $0.85 in earnings per share on $2.5 billion in net sales for the fourth quarter.
The shares of AGCO Corporation are trading $49.42 per share, up by more than 1% at the time of this writing around 11:02 A.M. in New York on Friday. The stock traded between $41.56 and $59.18 per share over the past 52-weeks. The company lost more than 4% of its stock value over the past year. It has approximately $4.5 3 billion market capitalization.
Tweedy Browne’s increased stockholdings
Tweedy Browned increased its stockholding in Halliburton by 18,330 shares to $5,350,020 shares. Its stake in the oilfield services company has a market value of approximately $210.42 million.
Halliburton is planning to cut 6,500 jobs due to the plunging oil prices and weakening oil & gas exploration and production. The company said the workforce reduction is not related to its impending acquisition of Baker Hughes.
The shares of Halliburton are trading $43.78 per share, up by more than 2% at the time of this writing. The stock traded between $37.21 and $74.33 per share over the past 52-weeks. The company lost more than 11% of its stock value year-to-date.
Tweedy Browne boosted its stake in Verizon Communications by 382,841 shares to 1,400,454 shares. Its position is worth approximately $65.51 million.
Last month, Verizon Communications reported quarterly earnings that met the consensus estimate of Wall Street analyst. The company posted earnings of $0.71 per share on $33.19 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter.
The shares of Verizon Communications are slightly down to $49.49 per share at the time of this writing today. The company’s stock value climbed more than 5% year-to-date.
Tweedy Browne 4Q performance
Last month, Tweedy Browne reported that the fourth quarter was difficult with respect to relative performance comparisons. Its Global Value Fund declined 1.91%, Global Value Fund II dropped 4.3%, Value Fund fell 1.95%, and WW High Dividend Fund slumped 2.41%.
According to Tweedy Browne, its modestly negative returns during the quarter was primarily due to the decline in oil prices and corresponding drop in its oil& gas and other energy related stockholdings.
