During the third quarter, Yacktman Fund (Trades, Portfolio)s bought one new stock and additional shares of Twenty-First Century Fox and three portfolio positions in financials as its biggest plays, it reported Tuesday.
Yacktman Asset Management was founded by accomplished investor Donald Yacktman (Trades, Portfolio) in 1992 and is now run primarily by his son, Stephen Yacktman. It has a reputation for buying undervalued securities, growing as well as protecting capital and having a long-term perspective. Its portfolio information for the end of the September quarter shows the firm owned 46 long positions among its funds, valued at $11.5 billion.
Reading International Inc. (RDI, Financial), the firm’s new third-quarter buy, was a purchase for its youngest portfolio, the Yacktman Opportunities Fund, the two-year-old strategy that requires high-quality, deep value stocks, and embraces special situations: spin-offs, corporate actions, changes in firm leadership, liquidation, and acquisitions or divestitures, according to firm materials.
Reading International is a $302.48 million market cap owner of theaters and real estate in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand. The company had several incidents over recent months that grabbed shareholder attention.
In April 2016, the company was awarded $2.3 million at the end of its arbitration with The STOMP Company Limited Partnership, the producer of the STOMP show. In June, its board also rejected an acquisition offer for $17 per share, which it announced on July 18. On Oct. 26, a court dismissed claims against Reading’s directors in a lawsuit brought by value fund manager Whitney Tilson (Trades, Portfolio) and another plaintiff, who owned 3.6% of the company’s shares.
Reading has five-year growth rates of 1.3% for revenue 8.1% for EBITDA. The company also had $9.6 million in cash on its balance sheet and $113.3 million in debt at the end of the second quarter. It has a P/E ratio of 33.39.
Yacktman managers purchased 18,474 shares of Reading, which had an average third-quarter stock price of around $13. The holding shares 1.18% of the Special Opportunities portfolio.
Twenty-First Century Fox (FOXA, Financial)
Yacktman Fund (Trades, Portfolio)s increased its position in Twenty-First Century Fox (FOXA, Financial), its second-largest holding, by 18.8% to 47,597,094 shares in the third quarter. The stock price of the company averaged around $26 per share.
Twenty-First Century Fox has a market cap of $48.78 billion; its shares were traded around $26.19 with a P/E ratio of 18.43 and P/S ratio of 1.88. The trailing 12-month dividend yield of Twenty-First Century Fox is 1.27%. The forward dividend yield of Twenty-First Century Fox is 1.37%. Twenty-First Century Fox had an annual average earnings growth of 13.7% over the past five years.
Financials
Yacktman Fund (Trades, Portfolio)s increased its position in Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B, Financial) by 2.2% to 23,279 shares. The company’s stock price averaged around $146 per share.
Berkshire Hathaway has a market cap of $354.16 billion; its shares were traded with a P/E ratio of 13.88 and P/S ratio of 1.62. Berkshire Hathaway had an annual average earnings growth of 10.4% over the past 10 years. GuruFocus rated Berkshire Hathaway the business predictability rank of 3-star.
Yacktman Fund (Trades, Portfolio)s increased its position in Bank of America (BAC, Financial) by 0.61% to 2.8 million shares. The company’s stock price averaged $15.
Bank of America has a market cap of $169.5 billion; its shares were traded with a P/E ratio of 13.19 and P/S ratio of 2.33. The trailing 12-month dividend yield of Bank of America is 1.36%. The forward dividend yield of Bank of America is 1.82%. Bank of America had an annual average earnings growth of 52.3% over the past five years.
Yacktman Fund (Trades, Portfolio)s increased its position in Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC, Financial) by 0.37% to 2,135,604 shares. The company’s stock price averaged around $48.
Wells Fargo has a market cap of $232.04 billion; its shares were traded with a P/E ratio of 11.39 and P/S ratio of 2.73. The trailing 12-month dividend yield of Wells Fargo is 3.28%. The forward dividend yield of Wells Fargo is 3.3%. Wells Fargo had an annual average earnings growth of 5.7% over the past 10 years.
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