The premier investor of the current day, Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio), today revealed his portfolio positioning as of the end of the fourth quarter. Buffett, now along with two managers – Ted Weschler and Todd Combs – oversees a portfolio worth $104.8 billion for insurance conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, Financial)(BRK.B, Financial).
Buffett’s fourth-quarter portfolio appears to contain three new stocks, but only one is a revelation: Liberty Global PLC (LBTYA, Financial).
Berkshire purchased 2,948,285 shares of Liberty Global PLC in the fourth quarter, giving the position a 0.25% portfolio weight. Shares of the company cost on average $81 in the fourth quarter.
Liberty Global purchased Virgin Media Inc. for $24 billion on June 7, 2013, and began trading under a new ticker symbol. The merger made it the largest international cable company with operations in 14 countries and a $18.68 billion market cap.
Liberty Global’s stock price has gained 13% since it was re-introduced to the market, trading around $83.60 on Friday. In January, it repurchased $1 billion of its shares.
The company has a P/S ratio of 2.0 and an annual average earnings growth of 31.0% over the past 10 years.
Graham Holdings Co. (GHC, Financial)
Buffett also shows owning 1,727,765 shares of Graham Holdings Co. (GHC, Financial) as of the end of the fourth quarter. This position holds a 1.1% spot in the portfolio.
Graham Holdings Co. is actually the new name of a long-term Buffett holding, the Washington Post Company. The name change came when the company sold its major newspaper to Amazon.com (AMZN, Financial)’s Jeff Bezos in 2013.
Yesterday, Buffett went public with talks to possibly exit his position in the company, or work out a deal involving Graham selling a business or Berkshire Hathaway shares, in a 13-D filing. Graham released a statement on Feb. 12 saying, “As indicated in the filing, the parties are in discussions and have not reached an agreement on terms of a potential transaction, and the parties may not reach such agreement. No transaction will be consummated unless it is in the interest of both parties.”
Graham Holdings shares gained 65% in the past 12 months, to trade at $658.89 on Friday.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS, Financial)
Finally, Berkshire reported owning 12,631,531 shares of Goldman Sachs, a position worth 2.1% of his portfolio and 2.81% of the company’s shares outstanding.
These shares came from a crisis-era investment in the company Buffett consummated in October 2013. Buffett in 2008 purchased $5 billion in Goldman Sachs preferred shares, which came with a 10% dividend, along with warrants granting him the right to buy $5 billion in Goldman common stock at $115 per share. In October, he converted the warrants under an amended plan that gave him a smaller stake but eliminated the need to spend additional capital.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has a market cap of $74.2 billion; its shares were traded at around $163.72 with a P/E ratio of 9.80 and P/S ratio of 2.40. The dividend yield of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. stocks is 1.30%.
See more of Berkshire Hathaway’s fourth-quarter investment changes in Buffett and his managers’ portfolio here. Not a Premium Member of GuruFocus? Try it free for 7 days here!
