Every three months, wealth watchers around the world get a glimpse into the world of investment giants such as Warren Buffet, George Soros and John Paulson when the major investment companies and hedge funds file their data about their portfolios to the US sharemarket regulator.
Data from the second quarter (the three months to June 30) shows that these market heavyweights have been busy buying and selling.
The big news from Buffett’s filing was the fact that his holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, added a new company to its portfolio – payment processing company Fiserv, which provides payment solutions to banks, credit union and other financial services companies.
The company, which was launched in 1984 through the combination of two small regional processing companies, now employs more than 20,000 people, has more than 16,000 clients and annual revenue of over $US4 billion.
Buffett also increased his stakes in three companies leveraged to the health and pharmaceuticals sector in Johnson & Johnson, Becton Dickinson and Sanofi-Aventis.
On the other side of the ledger, Berkshire reduced its positions in oil company ConocoPhillips, Kraft and Procter & Gamble.
Billionaire hedge fund owner George Soros – the man who earlier this year warned that the second stage of the GFC might be coming – slashed his exposure to the US sharemarket.
Soros slashed his stakes in iconic companies Wal-Mart, JP Morgan Chase and Pfizer to extremely low levels, while he also cut his stakes in tech leaders Google and AOL and telecommunications giant AT&T.
Another hedge fund investor always worth watching is John Paulson, who made billions betting the sub-prime bubble would burst and damage banks and housing-related stocks.
Despite the weak state of the US economy, Paulson is clearly bullish about financial services company.
He increased his stakes in Goldman Sachs, mortgage insurance company PMI Group, banking giant Wells Fargo insurer Hartford Financial.
Paulson also boosted his stake in energy giant Exxon Mobil to its portfolio with the purchase of nine million shares of the company in the second quarter.
Paulson’s fund cut its shares in SME lender CIT Group (CIT) and sold shares in laser medical devices company Boston Scientific.
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
