Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. (BRK.A)(BRK.B) was criticized by many value investors recently because of its decision to sit on a massive pile of cash without investing in the market.

The investing world has long been accustomed to Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio)'s brave bets on seemingly troubled companies during market downturns and economic recessions, so it was natural to assume that the guru was on a mission to find lucrative bets early last year when the market crashed as a result of the Covid-induced recession.

To the surprise of many investors, though, Buffett sold out of

David Tepper (Trades, Portfolio), founder of Appaloosa Management, disclosed this week that his firm's top six trades during the fourth quarter of 2020 included position reductions in PG&E Corp. (PCG) and Micron Technology Inc. (MU), the closure of its AT&T Inc. (T) holding, new holdings in Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY) and the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLE) and a position boost in Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN).

Tepper, who specializes in distressed-debt investing, became interested in stocks by watching his father trade equities as a child. The guru is now among a group of Wall Street fund managers

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 30,303.17 on Wednesday with a loss of 633.87 points or -2.05%. The S&P 500 closed at 3,750.77 for a loss of 98.85 points or -2.57%. The Nasdaq Composite closed at 13,270.60 for a loss of 355.47 points or -2.61%. The VIX Volatility Index was higher at 37.21 for a gain of 14.19 points or 61.64%.

Wednesday's Market Movers

U.S. indexes ended sharply lower Wednesday. U.S. trading saw increased volatility with the VIX up 61.64%. Volatility and losses were influenced by some extreme gains from GameStop (GME) and other names which have previously held

American telecommunications major AT&T Inc. (T) reported earnings results for the fourth quarter of 2020 before the markets opened on Jan. 27.

Despite reporting stronger-than-expected earnings and revenue, AT&T's guidance was weaker than the market had hoped on the back of cord-cutting, causing the stock to drop 1.7% to around $29.24 in midday trading.

Earnings results

In full-year 2020, the company saw adjusted earnings per share reach $3.18 compared to $3.57 in 2019, while revenue was $171.8 billion compared to the prior year's $181.1 billion.

For the fourth quarter, AT&T reported a diluted loss

AT&T Inc. (T) is the Rodney Dangerfield of U.S. large-cap stocks. In spite of a great dividend (7.2% currently), it gets "no respect" from investors. Maybe its because of the high debt load it carries and the perception of it being a stodgy "old tech" company. The stock has been rangebound for over a decade.

According to GuruFocus' Total Return Calculator, if you had invested in AT&T 10 years ago, your compound annualized growth rate (CAGR) would have been around 5% a year. Not bad, but not great either. The S&P 500 has returned 12.81% (CAGR).

Over the

Netflix Inc. (NFLX) released its fourth-quarter results after the market closed on Jan. 19. The company's revenue beat projections as stay-at-home orders led to outpaced subscriber growth. Earnings, however, missed expectations.

The company's shares surged more than 12% in after-hours trading to $563.49 following the earnings release as it surpassed revenue and subscriber growth targets for the quarter.

Key metrics

The company posted diluted earnings per share of $1.19, which reflected a decline of 8.46% from the year-ago quarter. Revenue of $6.64 billion climbed 21.53% on a year-over-year basis. Wall Street was anticipating earnings of $1.39 per share on $6.62

Due to gains made over the past few years and our focus on building up our lower-yielding positions, the yield on the portfolio my wife and I are building fell to just over 2% last year. One of the goals that I listed for our portfolio in 2021 was to increase the average yield of our holdings. Another goal is to purchase stocks trading at or below their long-term valuations.

To that end, we added to our positions in four stocks that yield above 4% on Monday. In addition, all of the names purchased were trading below their long-term

Investing in high growth business sectors comes at a cost. More often than not, stocks representing such industries trade at high valuation multiples, attaching a significant risk to those investment opportunities.

In some rare instances, however, market gyrations open up lucrative opportunities in growth companies, and investors who double down on growth stocks at cheap multiples often end up booking in handsome returns down the line. Lumen Technologies, Inc. (LUMN), previously known as CenturyLink, seems poised to grow exponentially in the coming years, but the market seems to be oblivious to that fact.

The outlook

The rollout of 5G technology

Appaloosa Management, the Florida-based hedge fund founded in 1993 by David Tepper (Trades, Portfolio), has earned an international reputation for producing strong returns among Wall Street investors.

Known for being a distressed-debt specialist, filings show the billionaire guru's firm focuses on "equities and debt of distressed companies, exchange warrants, options, futures notes and junk bonds." Tepper announced in 2019 that he was converting his hedge fund into a family office now that he also owns the Carolina Panthers NFL football team.

As of the end of the third quarter, the communication services sector had the largest representation

Investors looking for quality retail stocks selling for bargain prices don't have an abundance of choices.

One possible opportunity, in my opinion, is Big Lots Inc (BIG). The discount retailer, which owns a chain of 1,411 stores as of the end of its fiscal third quarter (which ended on Oct. 31), describes itself as follows in its 10-K for 2019:

"We manage our business on the basis of one segment: discount retailing. We evaluate and report overall sales and merchandise performance based on the following key merchandising categories: Furniture, Seasonal, Soft Home, Food, Consumables, Hard Home, and Electronics, Toys,

Bruce Berkowitz (Trades, Portfolio), founder and managing member of the Fairholme Fund (Trades, Portfolio), disclosed this week that his top four buys during the third quarter were Bank of America Corp. (BAC), AT&T Inc. (T), Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (CNQ) and Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI).

Managing a portfolio of just 13 stocks, Berkowitz believes that the more diversified the portfolio is, the more likely that the portfolio performance will be average. The guru follows Benjamin Graham's investing philosophy by purchasing stocks of companies with strong management teams, high potential of free cash flow generation

According to GuruFocus data, the largest Insider Buys this week were for International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), NXP Semiconductors N.V. (NXPI), Welltower Inc. (WELL) and Athenex Inc. (ATNX).

International Business Machines Corp. Director Andrew N. Liveris bought 2,655 shares

Director Andrew N. Liveris bought 2,655 shares on Nov. 2 at the average price of $112.92. The price of the stock has increased by 0.99% since.

International Business Machines Corp. is an American international technology company that manufactures and markets computer hardware, middleware and software. The company also offers hosting and consulting services in areas such as mainframe computers and nanotechnology.

Fox Corp. (FOX)(FOXA), which was formed in early 2018 following The Walt Disney Co.'s (DIS) acquisition of the majority of the assets owned by 21st Century Fox, reported results for the first quarter of fiscal 2021 on Tuesday. Revenue increased 2% to $2.72 billion, with 10% growth in affiliate fees offset by mid-single-digit declines in advertising and other revenue (primarily due to the absence of sports sub-licensing revenue). This led to a 36% increase in adjusted Ebitda to $1.17 billion as well as a 42% increase in adjusted earnings per share (but as I'll explain shortly, the outsized growth in

According to GuruFocus' list of 52-week lows, these Guru stocks have reached their 52-week lows.

AT&T

The price of AT&T Inc. (T) shares has declined to close to the 52-week low of $27.02, which is 34.3% off the 52-week high of $39.70. The company has a market cap of $192.53 billion.

Its shares traded with a price-earnings ratio of 17.86 and a price-sales ratio of 1.13 as of Oct. 30. The trailing 12-month dividend yield is 7.70%. The forward dividend yield is 7.70%. The company has had an annual average earnings growth of 3.20% over

Telecom behemoth AT&T (T) has recently been in the news for a better-than-expected quarterly result. The company managed to rope in a substantial base of subscribers in the past quarter, including strong additions to its fiber network and its media streaming services.

With its current level of dividend payouts, the stock is providing a yield of more than 7% and has become a very attractive bet for yield players. However, AT&T's struggles with respect to its entertainment segment are far from over, and whether the management will be able to sustain its massive dividend while pouring cash into the expansion

In an article published on Sept. 24, I concluded that I think Apple Inc. (AAPL) stock could continue to head higher with the launch of the iPhone 12. Empirical data suggests that investors will enjoy the next 12 months.

The company's market capitalization of over $2 trillion might give the impression to an investor that Apple is too big to grow, but in reality, the expected super cycle in device upgrades resulting from the launch of 5G-enabled devices will most likely push the stock to new highs. Even though there are critics that argue Apple's best times are

Verizon Communications Inc (VZ) was recently in the news for its nation-wide 5G rollout. The company is the largest wireless carrier in the U.S. and is looking to grow rapidly through its 5G offerings in the coming months.

The company has been spending billions of dollars on increasing its capacity and speeding up its network, but there is a big question around whether the actual consumption of its services will increase as significantly as the expenses.

The company recently released earnings results and guided for a further increase in capex in the coming months over and above strong dividend payouts,

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 28,363.66 on Thursday with a gain of 152.84 points or 0.54%. The S&P 500 closed at 3,453.49 for a gain of 17.93 points or 0.52%. The Nasdaq Composite closed at 11,506.01 for a gain of 21.31 points or 0.19%. The VIX Volatility Index was lower at 28.11 for a loss of 0.54 points or -1.88%.

Thursday's Market Movers

U.S. indexes ended the day higher. The Food and Drug Administration approved Gilead's (GILD) Remdesivir as the first fully approved Covid-19 treatment. The Nasdaq Biotech Index gained 1.46%.

On the earnings calendar:

• Dow (DOW):

Shares of AT&T Inc. (T) were up over 5% after revenue reports surpassed analyst expectations on Wednesday.

For the third quarter, the wireless communication and entertainment company reported diluted earnings per share of 39 cents. Reported consolidated revenue was $42.3 billion, down from $44.6 billion in the year-ago quarter. However, revenue numbers exceeded Refinitiv analysts' expectations of $41.59 billion for the quarter.

The higher-than-expected revenues came in part thanks to 645,000 new subscribers to AT&T's monthly phone plan. This came as a surpise as FactSet analysts were expeceting a loss of 9,000 customers. The

Netflix (NFLX) released its third-quarter results on Oct. 20 after the market closed. The streaming giant's earnings missed projections due to a slowdown in subscriber additions after witnessing outpaced subscriber growth in the first two quarters of 2020. Revenue, however, surpassed expectations.

Performance at a glance

The company posted diluted earnings per share of $1.74, which reflected a gain of 18% from the same quarter last year. Revenue of $6.44 billion climbed 23% on a year-over-year basis. Wall Street had predicted EPS of $2.14 on $6.38 billion in revenue.

In a letter to shareholders, the company commented on how Covid-19