Buffett's Value-Focused Neighbor Likes Cable Stocks, Berkshire Shares

• By the tickerspy.com Staff
• On 11:03 am EST, Thursday November 5, 2009

Warren Buffett isn't the only value investor in Omaha. Weitz Funds president and portfolio manager Wallace Weitz has seen all five of his equity funds appreciate by over 20% in 2009. Newly disclosed holdings indicate a preference for the cable TV sector and shares of Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A - News, BRK-B - News), run by Omaha native Weitz's billionaire neighbor Warren Buffett.

Weitz's funds, including the Weitz Partners III Opportunity (NASDAQ: WPOPX - News) and Weitz Hickory Fund (NASDAQ: WEHIX - News), up 39% and 32% respectively, have done well in 2009. By way of comparison, Berkshire Hathaway shares are up just 5% year to date.

During the third quarter, Weitz did some reallocating of the firm's largest aggregated holdings across all funds. Still, Berkshire Hathaway B shares were the firm's top holding.

Looking at Weitz's newly disclosed top-15, U.S.-listed, equity holdings from the end of Q3, it is clear that he remains interested in the cable TV sector, where he added slightly to his Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA - News, CMCSK - News) last quarter. John Malone's Liberty Media empire also represented a significant portion of Weitz's holdings. The sum of Liberty Global (NASDAQ: LBTYK - News), Liberty Media Capital (NASDAQ: LCAPA - News), Liberty Media Interactive (NASDAQ: LINTA - News), and Liberty Entertainment Group (NASDAQ: LMDIA - News) holdings actually outweigh Weitz's significant Berkshire position.

Other Weitz holdings from the start of Q4 included tech giant Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT - News), health insurer WellPoint (NYSE: WLP - News), and the firm's second-largest equity holding, REIT Redwood Trust (NYSE: RWT - News).

Looking at tickerspy.com's graph charting the performance of Weitz's holdings, one can see that after a short-lived September spike, the positions have largely traded in tandem with the S&P 500. If you want to see how your performance stacks up to Weitz's or just see some of his other holdings, visit tickerspy.com to see his top holdings and a chart of their combined performance.

Pro portfolio performance is based on institutions' top-15 holdings as disclosed in quarter-end filings with the SEC. Pro performance does not take into account additional holdings beyond the top 15 nor does it include positions that are not required to be disclosed by the SEC. As such, Pro portfolio performance should be considered an approximation and not a precise record of how an institution has performed over time.

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