Weitz said his company was too heavy on financial stocks when troubles caught up with financial institutions like major banks and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Weitz & Co. suffered some losses as it began unloading those investments in the first half of 2008, Weitz said.
Weitz was asked why his people were slow to react to the banking problems. Weitz said they saw problems mounting in the housing industry and shed some investments, but they did not fully anticipate the kind of credit freeze that happened in late 2008, after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers.
"We missed the shutting down of credit markets and the curtain falling down on companies that had been able to get fresh credit one way or another," Weitz said.
Weitz & Co. won't, he hopes, make that mistake again.
Another recent change for Weitz's firm has been concentrating more on commodities after those markets collapsed in mid-2008, Weitz said. The firm now owns small positions in a half-dozen energy companies, and it continues to study producers of other commodities, Weitz said.
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Weitz was asked why his people were slow to react to the banking problems. Weitz said they saw problems mounting in the housing industry and shed some investments, but they did not fully anticipate the kind of credit freeze that happened in late 2008, after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers.
"We missed the shutting down of credit markets and the curtain falling down on companies that had been able to get fresh credit one way or another," Weitz said.
Weitz & Co. won't, he hopes, make that mistake again.
Another recent change for Weitz's firm has been concentrating more on commodities after those markets collapsed in mid-2008, Weitz said. The firm now owns small positions in a half-dozen energy companies, and it continues to study producers of other commodities, Weitz said.
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