Wallace Weitz (Trades, Portfolio), chief investment officer and founder of Weitz Investments, will be answering investing questions from GuruFocus readers next month in an exclusive Q&A. Have questions about Weitz’s investment philosophy or top holdings? Post them in the comments box below. Questions from Premium Members will be given higher priority.
About Wally
Wallace Weitz, also known as the other Oracle of Omaha, bought his first stock at the ripe age of 12, and began to learn about Ben Graham’s value investing concept in high school. He then earned a bachelor’s in economics from Carlton College and worked in security analysis in New York. After three years, he relocated to Omaha, Nebraska and joined Chiles, Heider & Co. as an analyst. Weitz then founded Wallace R. Weitz & Company in 1983 where he manages the Partners III Opportunity Fund, and co-manages the Value, Partners Value, and Hickory Funds.
As of Q1 2015, the top five largest holdings in the Value Fund are: Liberty Global PLC (LBTYK, Financial), Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX, Financial), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B, Financial), Liberty Interactive Corp (QVCA, Financial), and Range Resources (RRC, Financial).
Consumer discretionary stocks make up the majority of the portfolio at 30.5%, followed by healthcare at 20.9%, and information technology at 13.8%.Ă‚
Performance
Since the current strategy of investing in large-size companies was implemented in June 2008, the Value Fund had an annualized return of 10.88%. For comparison, the S&P 500 had an annualized return of 9.74% over the same time period, while the Russell 1000 returned 9.94%.
Be sure to submit your questions by May 8 to be considered for the Q&A.
