Prem Watsa (Trades, Portfolio)’s Fairfax Financial Holdings, a Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, Financial)(BRK.B, Financial)-style insurance conglomerate with a stock portfolio, purchased three new stocks in the recent quarter, one of which is a former Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio) holding, he reported Friday.
Watsa started positions in Altera Corp. (ALTR, Financial), Yodlee Inc. (YDLE, Financial) and POSCO (PKX, Financial), bringing his total holdings to 40 in a portfolio valued at $1.08 billion. Buffett sold his stake in steelmaker POSCO, which totaled 5.1% of its shares at the end of 2012, in March, which negatively impacted the stock. Shares have declined 43% year to date.
Watsa often buys low-priced or troubled stocks, with a top position in BlackBerry Ltd. (BBRY, Financial) at 26.5% of his portfolio and other positions in Greek banks and an investment in Bank of Ireland (LSE:BKIR, Financial). Buffett holding IBM (IBM) also ranks as his fourth-largest position. He also shares Buffett’s relish for book value, and has grown the metric at his Canada-based company Fairfax (TSX:FFH, Financial) in all but six of the past 30 years.
Overview of new positions
In the third quarter, Watsa purchased 191,879 shares of POSCO, a 0.62% portfolio weight. The company’s share price averaged $41 for the quarter.
POSCO was incorporated in Korea on April 1, 1968. The company is engaged in the manufacturing and distribution of steel rolled products and plates in the domestic and overseas markets. Posco has a market cap of $11.71 billion; its shares were traded at around $36.59 with a P/E ratio of 22.52 and P/S ratio of 0.21. The dividend yield of Posco stocks is 1.13%.
Altera Corp. (ALTR, Financial)
Watsa purchased 20,000 shares of Altera Corp., a 0.09% portfolio weight. Its share price averaged $50.
Altera Corp. was founded in 1983 and reincorporated in the state of Delaware in 1997. Altera Corp. has a market cap of $15.95 billion; its shares were traded at around $52.68 with a P/E ratio of 47.74 and P/S ratio of 9.28. The dividend yield of Altera Corp. stocks is 1.37%. Altera Corp. had an annual average earnings growth of 10.7% over the past 10 years. GuruFocus rated Altera Corp. the business predictability rank of 3-star.
Watsa purchased 30,000 shares of Yodlee Inc., a 0.04% portfolio weight. The company’s share price averaged $15.
Yodlee Inc. was incorporated in Delaware in February 1999 under the name Yodlee. Yodlee Inc. has a market cap of $539.730 million; its shares were traded at around $17.48 with and P/S ratio of 2.15.
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