Investing

Institutional 'Superinvestors' Bought These 4 Stocks the Most in Q4

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The question on Wall Street for years past will be the same one going forward. What are the big-boys buying and selling? Typically, everybody from the biggest institutional accounts to retail investors want to know what the uber-successful money managers are buying for their portfolios.

In a new research note, Jefferies has tracked down the stocks that the so-called superinvestors were buying in the fourth quarter. This elite group of hedge fund and mutual fund managers include Oakmark, Third Point, Appaloosa, Dodge & Cox, Maverick and many more. Wall Street managers buying these stocks the most doesn’t necessarily guarantee success, but duplicating trades from some of the best investment minds on Wall Street is rarely a bad idea.

Here are the four stocks the “superinvestors” bought the most this quarter.

American Express

This stock has had a rough year, but this quarter it was the one most purchased by the superinvestors. American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) is down over 20% from highs printed this time a year ago. It provides charge and credit payment card products and travel-related services to consumers and businesses worldwide.

The company operates through four segments: U.S. Card Services, International Card Services, Global Commercial Services and Global Network & Merchant Services. Its products and services include charge and credit card products; payments and expense management products and services; consumer and business travel services; stored value products, such as traveler’s checks and other prepaid products; and network services.

American Express is one the Dogs of the Dow this year, and Insider Monkey reports that five hedge funds have actually lowered their holdings. As of the end of the third quarter, 52 hedge funds owned the stock. One of the biggest holders is Berkshire Hathaway.

American Express shareholders receive a 1.63% dividend. The Thomson/First Call consensus price target is $81.24. The shares closed Friday at $71.10.

Apple

This remains the world’s biggest and boldest technology company. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) has continually stayed in the limelight as the Silicon Valley behemoth came out with a tons of new product for the Apple nation to embrace. In what is becoming a new trend, many of the former bullish analysts on the stock somewhat yawned at some the new offerings, saying that it was really “no big deal.”

The company rolled out a wide array of new products this fall that many analysts feel can deliver about 3.1% of the firm’s estimated current year 2016 earnings estimates. The new iPhone payment plan that was rolled out with the introduction of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus can become a recurring revenue stream for the company.

The iPad Pro with a new 12.9-inch screen could pose a challenge to the Microsoft Surface tablet. This in tandem with the Apple Pencil and the physical smart keyboard rolled out for the iPad Pro is another string of new products that can generate new revenues for the company.

Lastly an updated Apple TV was introduced, along with an accompanying app store. This is Apple making a big bid to be part of the switch by many consumers to streaming media and detaching from huge bundled programming. The new Apple TV hardware with the A8 chip in it is priced at $149 for a 32GB version and $199 for the 64GB version. Many analysts feel that the higher pricing for the hardware and the gaming apps that will be available, will continue to deliver earnings increases.

Apple investors receive a 1.8% dividend. The consensus price target is $148.64. The stock closed Friday at $119.03.


Microsoft

This top technology stock should not only do fine in the coming rising interest rate environment, but it gives investors some degree of mega-cap tech safety. Microsoft Inc. (NASDAQ: MSFT) continues to find an increasing amount of support from portfolio managers, who have added the software giant to their holdings at an increasingly faster pace all year.

Numerous Wall Street analysts feel that Microsoft has become a clear number two in the public or hyper-scale cloud infrastructure market with Azure, which is its cloud computing platform offering. Some have flagged Azure as a solid rival to Amazon’s AWS service. Some analysts maintain that Microsoft is discounting Azure for large enterprises, such that Azure may be cheaper than AWS for larger users.

The top analysts believe the company continues to make steady progress with its cloud transition and expect Office 365 and Azure to be solid contributors to top and bottom line for the next several years. While unlikely to snag the top slot from Amazon, it could add huge incremental revenue for years to come.

With gaming revenues are growing at a huge pace. The Xbox continues to gain more and more fans as the ultimate console to own. Microsoft continues to upgrade the popular device, and many think that it could dominate Sony’s PlayStation at some point.

Microsoft investors receive a very solid 2.58% dividend, and the forward valuation remains very compelling. The consensus price target is $56.16. The stock closed Friday at $55.91.

Berkshire-Hathaway

This could be the ultimate perfect portfolio for investors, and it was the fourth most bought stock this quarter. Berkshire-Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) is not only the largest cap stock in the financial sector, it gives investors the ultimate way to own a basket of public and private names that few, if any, investment vehicles can. It is run by the legendary Warren Buffett, and investors have reaped the benefits of his genius for over 50 years now.

Transition concerns have popped up in recent years as the beloved investment guru has aged, but many bright, younger managers have been brought in to guide the ship into the investing future. With the stock trading right in the middle of its 52-week range, the current price point could provide investors a good entry level. Plus trading at 14.8 times earnings, it remains a compelling value.

No consensus price target for the stock was available. The shares closed on Friday at $136.48.


Needless to say, these are four mega-cap stocks that could be excellent additions to any long-term growth portfolio. The fact that the superinvestors are buying these four the most is also a solid indicator.

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