Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio) had an inarguably poor 2015, with many of his top positions down and stock of his own company, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, Financial)(BRK.B, Financial), falling around 13% for the year.
Investors may view Buffett’s performance from different perspectives. His tried-and-true giant positioning in American stalwart companies suffered last year as investors borne on bull-market enthusiasm turned to astronomically priced growth stocks like Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN, Financial) and Netflix Inc. (NFLX, Financial), which many value investors – like David Einhorn (Trades, Portfolio) – believe are due for a fall back down to earth. Second, many of his peers, like Einhorn, Bill Gates (Trades, Portfolio) and Carl Icahn (Trades, Portfolio), have lost millions and billions in the market turmoil of 2016, in which, as CNN reported, only 18 companies in the S&P 500 dwelt in positive territory Thursday.
And the 7% market downturn that has cost Buffett this year has also lowered the price of some of his most valued holdings. A total of nine of his 48 companies traded Friday at their lowest price in at least a year, including three of his five largest.
Buffett’s largest positions on the 52-week low list are: Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC, Financial), International Business Machines Corp. (IBM, Financial), America Express Co. (AXP, Financial), U.S. Bancorp (USB, Financial) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS, Financial).
Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC, Financial)
Shares of Wells Fargo closed Friday at $49 per share, near a 52-week low of $46.88 per share, after a 5% decline in the past year. Buffett owned 470,292,359 shares of the company, making it his biggest position at almost 19% of his portfolio as of the end of the third quarter. He has not increased the holding since the first quarter 2015.
Wells Fargo reported 2015 net income of $23.0 billion, flat from 2014, and earnings per share of $4.15, up 1% from last year. The bank also increased its annual return to shareholders for the fifth consecutive year. It has a 3.01% dividend yield.
International Business Machines Corp. (IBM, Financial)
IBM shares have fallen 22% over the past year to their Friday closing price of $122.55, near their 52-week low of $118. His fourth largest holding, Buffett owned 81,033,450 shares of IBM, making up 9.2% of his portfolio at third quarter-end.
In 2015, IBM reported an 8.5% decline in total revenue from last year, to $22.06 billion. Earnings per diluted share also declined 16.7% to $4.459.
"We continue to make significant progress in our transformation to higher value. In 2015, our strategic imperatives of cloud, analytics, mobile, social and security grew 26 percent to $29 billion and now represent 35 percent of our total revenue," Ginni Rometty, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.
America Express Co. (AXP, Financial)
America Express has declined 36% over the past year. It closed at $55.05 per share Friday, down 12.1% for the trading day. American Express has a 52-week low of $54.14. Buffett held 151,610,700 shares of American Express, his fifth largest position at 8.8% of the portfolio.
American Express stock fell as it reported Thursday a 4% decline in total revenue for the year to $32.82 billion, and 12% low in net income at $5.16 billion, compared to the previous year.
“Our 2015 results and outlook reflect the reset in co-brand economics, pressures on merchant fees, the evolving regulatory environment and intense competition that have been re-shaping the payments industry,” Kenneth I. Chenault, IBM chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement.
“A number of cyclical factors in the broader economy have also weighed on our performance and influenced our outlook. Against that backdrop, and the fact that revenue growth has not accelerated as we anticipated, we are moving aggressively to streamline the company and drive efficiencies in order to take out $1 billion from our overall cost base by the end of 2017.
U.S. Bancorp has fallen 5.2% in the past year, closing at $39.37 Friday, near a 52-week low of $37.97 per share. Buffett held 85,063,167 shares of the company, worth 2.7% of his portfolio.
The banking company reported a 0.7% increase in revenue to $10.93 billion for 2015 and a 0.4% increase in net income to $5.93 billion. Its full-year diluted earnings per share of $3.16 increased 2.6% from the previous year and set a company record, and its quarter revenue also set a company record.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS, Financial)
Goldman Sachs shares have declined 11.5% over the past year to close at $156.86, near a 52-week low of $151.49. Buffett owned 10,959,519 shares of the company, worth 1.49% of his portfolio.
Goldman Sachs’ net revenues fell 2% to $33.8 billion for 2015, with net earnings of $6.08 billion, down 28%, compared to the previous year.
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