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Guy Spier's Buffett-Like Portfolio

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  • (1:00) - Learning Value Investing From A Fund Manager: Portfolio Philosophy
  • (6:30) - A Life Changing Lunch With Warren Buffett
  • (10:00) - Breaking Down Aquamarine Fund’s Current Positions  
  • (22:30) - Big Takeaways From Guy Spier: BAC, WFC, AXP, MA, MU, TWTR, GOOGL, MCO, RACE, SRG
  •                Podcast@Zacks.com

 

Welcome to Episode #241 of the Value Investor Podcast

Every week, Tracey Ryniec, the editor of Zacks Value Investor portfolio, shares some of her top value investing tips and stock picks.

This week, Tracey takes a look at value investor manager Guy Spier’s portfolio at Aquamarine Capital.

Spier famously won the annual Warren Buffett charity lunch in 2007, paying $660,000, which at that time was the highest ever paid. He attended the lunch for 3 ½ hours and has called it “life changing” in interviews.

He is value investor and holds a concentrated portfolio of just 12 stocks.

Following in Buffett’s Shadow

The largest holding in Spier’s Aquamarine Capital is Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B - Free Report) . He owns both the B shares and the A shares. It makes up 21% of the entire portfolio.  

Bank of America (BAC - Free Report) and American Express (AXP - Free Report) are the two next largest positions, at 15.5% each.

Both of those companies can also be found in Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio.

Technology Stocks on Sale

However, in the second quarter of 2020, when the global stock markets sold off on the coronavirus pandemic, Spier took the opportunity to jump in on some of the big cap technology names.

He bought small positions in both Twitter and Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) .

Neither one would have been considered “classic” value stocks ala Buffett or Ben Graham, even on the sell-off.

But they were “cheap” compared to their peers and historic valuations in their industries.

Twitter is up 85.5% and Alphabet has gained 68.6% over the last year versus the S&P 500’s gains of 34.5%.

What lessons can you take from Spier’s concentrated value portfolio?

Find out the answers on this week’s podcast.

[In full disclosure, Tracey owns shares of GOOGL in her personal portfolio.]

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