Jeremy Grantham Reduces More Than 250 Stakes in Second Quarter

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Aug 18, 2015
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Jeremy Grantham (Trades, Portfolio), chairman of the board of Boston-based asset management firm Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo, is known for his ability to identify speculative market “bubbles” and using that knowledge to lead clients away from financial disasters.

Like most of the gurus we follow, Grantham bought some stakes, sold some stakes and added to some others in the second quarter. But, by far, most of his activity involved reducing existing stakes – more than 250 of them.

Grantham sold nearly half of his stake in Express Scripts Holding Co. (ESRX, Financial), a St. Louis-based pharmacy benefit management company. He sold 10,407,822 shares for an average price of $87.35 per share. The sale had a -2.7% impact on Grantham’s portfolio.

Express Scripts Holding has a market cap of $60.57 billion and an enterprise value of $76.59 billion. It has a P/E of 29.5, a Price/Book of 3.8 and a Price/Sales of 0.6. Dodge & Cox, Chris Davis (Trades, Portfolio), David Rolfe (Trades, Portfolio), Manning & Napier Advisors, Inc, First Pacific Advisors (Trades, Portfolio), Steven Romick (Trades, Portfolio), Pioneer Investments (Trades, Portfolio), Charles Brandes (Trades, Portfolio), HOTCHKIS & WILEY, Glenn Greenberg (Trades, Portfolio), Diamond Hill Capital (Trades, Portfolio), Wallace Weitz (Trades, Portfolio), Ken Fisher (Trades, Portfolio), Vanguard Health Care Fund (Trades, Portfolio), Mario Gabelli (Trades, Portfolio), Scott Black (Trades, Portfolio), Ray Dalio (Trades, Portfolio), Joel Greenblatt (Trades, Portfolio), Steven Cohen (Trades, Portfolio), John Keeley (Trades, Portfolio), Jeff Auxier (Trades, Portfolio), Paul Tudor Jones (Trades, Portfolio), Ruane Cunniff (Trades, Portfolio) and First Eagle Investment (Trades, Portfolio) have shares of Express Scripts Holding in their portfolios.

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Grantham sold more than one-third of his stake in Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN, Financial), a Seattle-based electronic commerce company. Grantham sold 1,301,300 shares for an average price of $417.29 per share. The transaction had a -1.45% impact on Grantham’s portfolio.

Amazon.com has a market cap of $250.26 billion and an enterprise value of $244.51 billion. It has a Price/Book of 21.3 and a Price/Sales of 2.6. Chris Davis (Trades, Portfolio), Ken Fisher (Trades, Portfolio), Andreas Halvorsen (Trades, Portfolio), Bill Nygren (Trades, Portfolio), Chase Coleman (Trades, Portfolio), Steven Cohen (Trades, Portfolio), PRIMECAP Management (Trades, Portfolio), Louis Moore Bacon (Trades, Portfolio), Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio), Ron Baron (Trades, Portfolio), RS Investment Management (Trades, Portfolio), Mario Gabelli (Trades, Portfolio), Pioneer Investments (Trades, Portfolio), Robert Karr (Trades, Portfolio), Caxton Associates (Trades, Portfolio), Paul Tudor Jones (Trades, Portfolio), Murray Stahl (Trades, Portfolio), Dodge & Cox, Bill Frels (Trades, Portfolio) and First Eagle Investment (Trades, Portfolio) have shares of Amazon.com in their portfolios.

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During the weekend, Amazon.com was the subject of a New York Times report that spoke of the pressure the company puts on its employees to achieve its goals.

Grantham also sold about one-third of his stake in Coca-Cola (KO, Financial), the Atlanta-based beverage maker. Grantham sold 10,028,100 shares for an average price of $40.67 per share. The sale had a -1.21% impact on Grantham’s portfolio.

Coca-Cola has a market cap of $179.87 billion and an enterprise value of $203.46 billion. It has a P/E of 24.2, a Price/Book of 6.3 and a Price/Sales of 4.0. Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio), Donald Yacktman (Trades, Portfolio), Yacktman Fund (Trades, Portfolio), Ken Fisher (Trades, Portfolio), Yacktman Focused Fund (Trades, Portfolio), Manning & Napier Advisors, Inc, Pioneer Investments (Trades, Portfolio), Mario Gabelli (Trades, Portfolio), Ruane Cunniff (Trades, Portfolio), David Winters (Trades, Portfolio), Ray Dalio (Trades, Portfolio), Wintergreen Fund (Trades, Portfolio), Tom Russo (Trades, Portfolio), Caxton Associates (Trades, Portfolio), Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio), Joel Greenblatt (Trades, Portfolio), Steven Cohen (Trades, Portfolio), Arnold Van Den Berg (Trades, Portfolio), John Hussman (Trades, Portfolio), Jeff Auxier (Trades, Portfolio), Dodge & Cox, Paul Tudor Jones (Trades, Portfolio) and Bill Frels (Trades, Portfolio) have shares of Coca-Cola in their portfolios.

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Coca-Cola is dealing with its own unfavorable publicity in the New York Times. An article in the newspaper reported that Coca-Cola has been funding research that supports the position that exercise, not reducing caloric consumption, is critical in maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Grantham sold 589,700 shares of Google Inc. (GOOGL, Financial), a California-based technology company, for an average price of $549.45 per share. The sale had a -0.98% impact on Grantham’s portfolio.

Google has a market cap of $471.55 billion and an enterprise value of $407.01 billion. It has a P/E of 32.5, a Price/Book of 4.2 and a Price/Sales of 6.8. Andreas Halvorsen (Trades, Portfolio), PRIMECAP Management (Trades, Portfolio), Frank Sands (Trades, Portfolio), Chris Davis (Trades, Portfolio), Dodge & Cox, Ken Fisher (Trades, Portfolio), Bill Nygren (Trades, Portfolio), First Eagle Investment (Trades, Portfolio), Manning & Napier Advisors, Inc, Ruane Cunniff (Trades, Portfolio), Pioneer Investments (Trades, Portfolio), Larry Robbins (Trades, Portfolio), Diamond Hill Capital (Trades, Portfolio), David Rolfe (Trades, Portfolio), Steven Cohen (Trades, Portfolio), First Pacific Advisors (Trades, Portfolio), Steven Romick (Trades, Portfolio), Leon Cooperman (Trades, Portfolio), RS Investment Management (Trades, Portfolio), Tweedy Browne (Trades, Portfolio), NWQ Managers (Trades, Portfolio), Tweedy Browne (Trades, Portfolio) Global Value, Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio), Wallace Weitz (Trades, Portfolio), Paul Tudor Jones (Trades, Portfolio), Murray Stahl (Trades, Portfolio), David Winters (Trades, Portfolio), Louis Moore Bacon (Trades, Portfolio), Wintergreen Fund (Trades, Portfolio), Ray Dalio (Trades, Portfolio), Ron Baron (Trades, Portfolio), Charles de Vaulx (Trades, Portfolio), Julian Robertson (Trades, Portfolio), Tom Gayner (Trades, Portfolio), Mario Gabelli (Trades, Portfolio), John Burbank (Trades, Portfolio), Mario Cibelli (Trades, Portfolio), Robert Karr (Trades, Portfolio), Tom Russo (Trades, Portfolio), Jeff Auxier (Trades, Portfolio) and Bill Frels (Trades, Portfolio) have shares of Google in their portfolios.

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Grantham sold 2,569.946 shares of DirecTV (DTV, Financial), a California-based satellite TV service provider, for an average price of $90.32 per share. The deal had a -0.66% impact on Grantham’s portfolio.

DirecTV has a market cap of $47.18 billion and an enterprise value of $62.67 billion. It has a P/E of 16.2 and a Price/Sales of 1.4. Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio), PRIMECAP Management (Trades, Portfolio), John Paulson (Trades, Portfolio), Eric Mindich (Trades, Portfolio), Mario Gabelli (Trades, Portfolio), David Abrams (Trades, Portfolio), George Soros (Trades, Portfolio), Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio), Paul Tudor Jones (Trades, Portfolio), Joel Greenblatt (Trades, Portfolio), John Hussman (Trades, Portfolio), Ruane Cunniff (Trades, Portfolio), Louis Moore Bacon (Trades, Portfolio), Jeff Auxier (Trades, Portfolio), RS Investment Management (Trades, Portfolio), Lee Ainslie (Trades, Portfolio) and Ken Fisher (Trades, Portfolio) have shares of DirecTV in their portfolios.

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Among the other stakes of which Grantham sold portions were Colgate-Palmolive Co. (CL, Financial), 3M Co. (MMM, Financial), Nike Inc. (NKE, Financial), Apple Inc. (AAPL, Financial) and Philip Morris International Inc. (PM, Financial).

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