First Eagle Investment (Trades, Portfolio) has revealed its portfolio for the fourth quarter of 2020. Major trades for the firm include reductions in Deere & Co. (DE), Philip Morris International Inc. (PM), Weyerhaeuser Co. (WY) and 3M Co. (MMM). The firm also sold out of its Varian Medical Systems Inc. (VAR) holding.

The firm takes a long-term and return-orientated investment approach. At no point in time does it try to compete against short-term movements. Managers use bottom-up fundamental analysis to reduce inherent risk and preserve capital.

Portfolio overview

At the end of the fourth quarter, the

The third quarter was undeniably another bull run for stock markets with the major U.S. indexes reaching unprecedented highs. The S&P 500 surpassed 3,500 for the first time in history, the Nasdaq rocketed above 11,000 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average came within a few hundred points of recovering from its pre-Covid highs.

As a result, the U.S. stock market is more overvalued than ever. The Buffett Indicator, which is the ratio of total market cap to gross domestic product, stands at 182.3% as of Dec. 4, indicating that the U.S. stock market is significantly overvalued. This metric is named

Generation Investment Management, the firm founded by Al Gore (Trades, Portfolio) and David Blood, disclosed this week that its top five trades for the third quarter included a new position in Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), position boosts in Analog Devices Inc. (ADI) and Becton, Dickinson & Co. (BDX) and position reductions in Alphabet Inc. (GOOG) and Varian Medical Systems Inc. (VAR).

Gore, a former Vice President of the United States, co-founded the London-based firm in 2004. The firm focuses on a long-term investment perspective, focusing on sustainability within markets with companies that strategically manage environmental, social and

Generation Asset Management, the firm founded by David Blood and Al Gore (Trades, Portfolio), disclosed this month that its top five trades in the second quarter included increased bets in Becton, Dickinson and Co. (BDX), Palo Alto Networks Inc. (PANW) and Varian Medical Systems Inc. (VAR), and position reductions in Charles Schwab Corp. (SCHW) and MercadoLibre Inc. (MELI).

The former Vice President of the United States co-founded the London-based firm in 2004, seeking long-term capital appreciation through fundamental analysis and bottom-up stock picking. Generation focuses on sustainability within markets with companies that strategically manage their economic, social

Dow stocks were in the red on Thursday after the U.S. Census Bureau reported that durable goods orders declined 1.1% in September. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.18% to 26,787, while the S&P 500 Index rose 0.04% to 3,005 and the Nasdaq Composite Index increased 0.70% to 8,176.

Non-index stocks have also made movements recently. Shares of The Hershey Co. (HSY) fell almost 2.5% on Thursday after announcing third-quarter results. The company posted earnings of $1.61 per share on $2.13 billion in revenue, topping earnings estimates by 1 cent and revenue expectations by $10 million.

“We are pleased with

According to GuruFocus list of 52-week highs, these guru stocks have reached their 52-week highs.

VeriSign Inc. (VRSN) reached the 52-week high of $180.50

VeriSign Inc. is a part of the internet content industry. It provides domain name registry and internet security for websites and enterprises around the world. VeriSign is the sole authorized registry for several generic top-level domains, including the widely utilized .com and .net top-level domains. Additionally, the company operates two of the world's 13 root servers that are used to route internet traffic and also provides DNS security solutions to detect

U.S. stocks advanced Wednesday morning, ahead of a strong data on the labor market. The U.S. created 227,000 new private-sector jobs in October. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 280 points, or 1.12% to 25,153. The S&P 500 index gained 1.22% to 2,715, and the Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1.82% to 7,291.

Shares of General Motors Co. (GM) jumped more than 7% on Wednesday after the company posted third-quarter earnings of $1.87 per share, on revenue of $35.8 billion, reflecting 6.5% year-over-year growth. The company beat earnings estimates by 62 cents and revenue expectations by $460 million.

The

While gurus hold positions in these companies, the stock prices and returns continue to fall. These are the worst-performing stocks over the last three months with a long-term presence in at least three gurus’ portfolios.

The Hain Celestial Group Inc. (HAIN) had a negative performance of 30.3% over the past six months. The stock has a total weight of 0.59% in three gurus’ portfolios.

The manufacturer of genetically modified organism-free and organic products has a market cap of $3.11 billion. The stock is trading with a price-earnings ratio of 37.68. The current stock price of $28.69 is 37.40% below

The CI Can Am Small Cap (Trades, Portfolio) Fund, part of CI Investments Inc., disclosed that it established one new position and exited another when it released its semi-annual portfolio on Monday.

Managed by Joe Jugovic, the fund invests primarily in Canadian small-cap companies to achieve long-term capital growth. It will take positions in foreign securities as well.

The fund established a position in Macy’s Inc. (M) and closed its Varian Medical Systems Inc. (VAR) holding.

Macy’s

The fund invested in 260,660 shares of Macy’s for an average price of $26.98 per share, allocating 4.96% of

U.S. stock markets are set to open higher on Friday, amid the U.S. economy expanded at a 2.6% annual pace in the fourth quarter. GDP fell short of estimates explained by a lower inventory production and a bigger trade deficit, with imports doubling exports, 13.9% and 6.9%, respectively. Further, consumer spending increased by 3.8% and investment in new housing rose11.6%.

Shares of Colgate-Palmolive Company (CL) lost ground on premarket Friday session on the back of the company providing financial results for its fourth-quarter of fiscal 2017. The company posted adjusted EPS of 75 cents on revenue of $3.98 billion.

U.S. stock markets were set to open higher on Thursday, with investors looking at the dollar which sank yesterday after comments of White House officials.

Shares of Caterpillar Inc.(CAT) traded higher on premarket Thursday session on the back of the company providing financial results for its fourth-quarter of fiscal 2017. The company posted adjusted earnings per share of $2.16 on revenue of $12.9 billion. Both figures upbeat estimations in 37 cents in per-share earnings and $920 million in revenue. Revenue growth was 34.8% year-over-year.

Further, the company ended with a strong financial position. The Machinery, Energy & Transportation operating

The U.S. stock market opened mixed, with the two of the three main indexes slipping into negative territory.

Shares of 58.com Inc. (WUBA), however, were up about 10% in morning trading on the back of the company reporting better-than-expected earnings for its second quarter. EPS of 66 cents beat expectations by 46 cents and revenue of $382.81 million beat estimates by $45.61 million and grew 28.5% year over year.

The gross margin was 90.9%, down from 91.8% in the comparable quarter of 2016. Income from operations was $86 million and non-GAAP income from operations was $105.7 million, which were both

Goldman Sachs (GS) recently initiated coverage of some health care stocks and released ratings.

Goldman Sachs initiated coverage on Medtronic PLC (MDT) with a neutral rating.

Medtronic, a medical technology services company, has a market cap of $114.9 billion and an enterprise value of $134.36, for an EV/EBITDA ratio of 14.78.

The stock is currently trading around $83.94 per share on the New York Stock Exchange with a price-earnings (P/E) ratio of 29.63 and a price-book (P/B) ratio of 2.33. The forward P/E ratio is 16.92. The analysts’ EPS estimate is $4.58 for 2017. The average

Columbia funds are managed by Columbia Management Investment Advisers LLC, and Columbia Acorn funds are managed by Columbia Wanger (Trades, Portfolio) Asset Management LLC, a subsidiary of Columbia Management Investment Advisers, LLC. During the third quarter the guru’s largest trades were the following:

It closed its stake in Cepheid (CPHD) with an impact of -0.93% on the portfolio.

It is a molecular diagnostics company that develops, manufactures and markets integrated systems for testing in the clinical market as well as for application in its nonclinical market. During the

In my last article, I wrote about the conditions to which the “Bribing the Purchasing Agent Model” applies:

• The existence of information asymmetry – the customers are ignorant about the technicality and quality measurement standards of the product or the service, whereas the providers and the intermediary possess in-depth knowledge that cannot be easily learned.
• The end customer is not involved directly in the purchasing decision.
• Higher price benefits both the provider and the intermediary so that there is powerful incentive for them to form an alliance.
• The existence of monopoly, duopoly or oligopoly in the market. Again, the

Charlie Munger (Trades, Portfolio) had famously asked this question to business school students: “Under what circumstances the correct answer for raising product volumes is to increase the price.” Very few students came up with luxury goods – higher prices indicate higher quality which in turn, leads to great sales.

Munger then revealed another trick – when the end customer is not involved directly in the purchasing decision, then the increase in price can be used to bribe the purchasing agent to generate higher profit and sales volumes.

I didn’t identify Munger’s trick when I

First Eagle Investment (Trades, Portfolio) is an independent firm with approximately $94 billion in assets under management. During the first quarter the fund bought shares in many stocks:

The fund increased its stake in Weyerhaeuser Co. (WY) by136.62% with an impact of 1.64% on the portfolio.

The company is a private owner of timberlands. It owns or controls nearly 7 million acres of timberlands in the U.S. and manages additional timberlands under long-term licenses in Canada. The company reported a 7% increase in quarterly dividends and repurchased over $500 million in common shares in the fourth

According to GuruFocus’ All-in-One Screener, the following stocks have a high business predictability rating and at least five gurus are shareholders in the companies.

Jarden Corp. (JAH)

GuruFocus gives the company a business predictability of 4 out of 5 stars. The company is a provider of consumer products. It reports four business segments namely Outdoor Solutions, Consumer Solutions, Branded Consumables and Process Solutions.

The stock is trading with a P/E ratio of 84.96 and the price has been as high as $60.17 and as low as $43.19 in the last 52 weeks. It is currently 2.58% below its

David Rolfe (Trades, Portfolio) of Wedgewood Partners sold nearly all of his holdings in four existing stakes in his portfolio in the fourth quarter.

Rolfe reduced his position in Coach Inc. (COH), a New York-based apparel and accessories company, by nearly 99%. Rolfe sold 10,397,191 shares for an average price of $31.2 per share. The transaction had a -4.38% impact on Rolfe’s portfolio.

Rolfe’s remaining stake of 115,651 shares is 0.04% of Coach’s outstanding shares and 0.06% of the guru’s total assets. Dodge & Cox is Coach’s leading shareholder among the gurus with a stake of 17,371,561

David Rolfe (Trades, Portfolio) has been managing Wedgewood Partners' portfolio for 18 years. The following were his most heavily weighted trades during the fourth quarter.

Rolfe nearly closed his stake in Coach Inc. (COH), cutting it by 98.90% with an impact of -4.38% on the portfolio.

The company is a New York design house of modern luxury accessories and lifestyle collections. Its product offerings, manufactured by third-party suppliers, include women's and men's bags, women's and men's small leather goods, business cases, footwear, wearables including outerwear, watches, weekend and travel accessories, scarves, sunwear, fragrance, jewelry, travel bags