Third Avenue Management (Trades, Portfolio) reported owning three new stocks in the third quarter, all from the pharmaceutical sector.
The firm, founded by noted investor Martin Whitman (Trades, Portfolio), managed $6.3 billion as of Dec. 31 and returned 6.45% in its Value Fund for the calendar year through July 31, versus 7.65% for the S&P 500. The fund’s managers described their third-quarter trading activity in their recent letter:
“During the quarter, we took advantage of the market volatility. We sold securities near or above our Fair Value NAV estimates and near market highs of the quarterly period. We used the Brexit-related sell-off to establish two new positions, Amgen and LivaNova Plc, and increased the weights of several existing positions. We trimmed into strength early in the quarter, with portfolio cash reaching 9.94% by June 17th. Then we opportunistically added positions, and continued to build newer positions into the Brexit sell-off, so that as of July 12th cash had fallen to 6.87%.”
Health care stocks represent only 7.1% of the Value Fund’s portfolio, which is dominated by financial services at 28.5%. The $1.23 billion portfolio contains 36 stocks.
The three positions the fund purchased in the third quarter were: Amgen Inc. (AMGN, Financial), LivaNova PLC (LSE:LIVN, Financial) and Shire PLC (SHPG, Financial).
Third Avenue bought 121,300 shares of Amgen, positioned at 1.85% of the portfolio. The stock’s price averaged $169 per share in the quarter.
LivaNova PLC (LSE:LIVN, Financial)
The fund bought 310,200 shares of LivaNova PLC, positioned at 1.43% of the portfolio. The stock’s price averaged $57 per share.
Third Avenue bought 42,138 shares of Shire PLC, positioned at 0.73% of the portfolio. The stock’s price averaged $196 per share.
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