Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) picked up RH (RH) and Occidental Petroleum (OXY) in the third quarter, but Warren Buffett soured on Apple (AAPL), the latest quarterly 13F filings with the SEC show. Hedge funds also disclosed their top Q3 stock buys and sells.
Individual investors use the regulatory data to gauge where the "smart money" is placing its bets. Note that 13F filings show holdings at the end of each quarter, and hedge funds may have made changes to stock positions since then.
The S&P 500 rose 1.2% in Q3 despite mixed economic data and escalating trade tensions, taking the large-cap bogey's returns in the first nine months of 2019 to 19%.
Warren Buffett Makes Q3 Moves
Berkshire Hathaway dumped more than 750,000 shares of Apple in Q3 and more than 31 million shares of Wells Fargo (WFC) in Q3, but left stakes in other top 10 stocks in its portfolio unchanged.
The Warren Buffett company bought 1.2 million shares of RH worth around $206 million and 7.5 million shares of Occidental worth around $332 million. The positions each account for roughly 0.1% of portfolio assets.
Earlier this year, Berkshire Hathaway invested $10 billion in Occidental to help secure funding for its $38 billion acquisition of Andarko Petroleum.
The 13F filings showed Berkshire Hathaway lowered its stake in Wells Fargo by 7%, in Phillips 66 (PSX) by 6% and in Sirius XM (SIRI) by 1%.
In Q2, Berkshire left unchanged its Apple stake, which remains the No. 1 stock in Buffett's portfolio at 26% of assets, as per 13F filings tracked by Whalewisdom.com.
RH stock jumped 7.3% in after-hours trading on the stock market today. Occidental rose 1.5% late, Apple dipped 0.4%, and Wells Fargo lost 0.7%.
Activist Jana Partners Targets Steakhouse Chain
Jana Partners, the activist fund helmed by Barry Rosenstein, exited Falcon Minerals (FLMN) in Q3, after slashing its stake in the Eagle Ford Shale drilling company the prior quarter.
Rosenstein's fund took a hefty new stake in dining chain Bloomin' Brands (BLMN), at 12% of portfolio assets.
It made big cuts to several key holdings: 31% for Axalta Coating System (AXTA), 57% for Zimmer Biomet (ZBH), 26% for HD Supply (HDS) and 15% for Jack In The Box (JACK). Jana Partners had acquired Axalta stock in Q2.
Stakes in Callaway Golf (ELY) and ConAgra (CAG) were unchanged. ConAgra stock is Jana's No. 1 holding by market value. It now accounts for 37% of the total portfolio, up from 33%.
This year, Jana Partners liquidated two stock-picking funds to focus on social impact investing and also sold Apple (APPL) after protesting smartphone addiction.
Outback Steakhouse owner Bloomin' Brands is exploring strategic options, including a sale, after Jana's push for changes, according to Reuters. Bloomin' Brands stock surged on the news Nov. 6.
Tiger Global's Stock Buys And Sells
Chase Coleman's Tiger Global Management hedge fund loaded up on software stocks and IPO stocks, including New Relic (NEWR), Wayfair (W), Anaplan (PLAN), Slack Technologies (WORK), Beyond Meat (BYND) and Workday (WDAY).
The New York-based group offloaded small stakes in Pivotal Software (PVTL), Luckin Coffee (LK) and EventBrite (EB), while trimming Spotify (SPOT) and StoneCo (STNE).
No.1 holding Microsoft (MSFT) was unchanged, at 11% of portfolio assets. Among other top 10 stocks in the portfolio, stakes in Amazon (AMZN) and Netflix (NFLX) stayed steady while Facebook (FB) and Alibaba (BABA) grew by millions of shares each.
