Invest Like a Pro: Lord, Abbett & Co.

Imitation is the best form of flattery, right? Well, when you're learning a new skill, imitation can also be a great way to hone your craft.

If you're learning guitar, you might pick up a book of Jimi Hendrix's licks or download the chords to a couple of Bob Dylan's songs. So when you're trying to become a better investor, it only makes sense to take a peek at what the professional investors are up to.

For the Fools who don't have the time or inclination to pick individual stocks on their own, Shannon Zimmerman at the Champion Funds newsletter has put together a collection of mutual funds that have collectively outperformed their benchmarks by 14.6%. For the rest of us, we can tune in directly to what some of the major funds are holding.

You see, the SEC requires institutional investment managers who manage $100 million or more to show their holdings via quarterly 13-F filings. So this week, I dug up Lord, Abbett & Co.'s holdings, and to make things even more interesting, I cross-referenced those companies against what players in The Fool's CAPS community had to say about them.

Below are five of Lord, Abbett's larger holdings that have also been highly rated by CAPS players.

Now before you jump to it and make any hasty moves, remember that we're looking at what Lord, Abbett has done in retrospect. For all we know, since its last 13-F filing, the firm has drastically reduced its holdings in any or all of the above stocks. With that in mind, here are some thoughts on a couple of these stocks to kick off further research.

Just say "i"
Although I'm not the gadget guy I once was, I can certainly still appreciate a good gadget when I see one, and Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) new iPhone is a pretty impressive gadget from what I've seen. Reports from around the country confirm that I'm not the only one who thinks this -- thousands of people lined up (and, in some cases, camped out) for the release of the iPhone last week.

I wasn't one of the Apple faithful clamoring to get my hands on one, and not just because I don't have $600 sitting around right now to spend on a fancy new phone. I currently get my cell phone service from Sprint (NYSE:S), which, along with other major providers, will be out in the iCold for the next five years because of an exclusive contract that AT&T has made with Apple. Though I'm not planning to switch my service to jump on the iBandwagon, there's no doubt that plenty of people already have and more certainly will.

The iPhone certainly isn't the only thing that $258 billion behemoth AT&T has going for it. In fact, its whole cellular arm -- which used to be Cingular and is now AT&T (or is it vice versa?) -- is only one part of the massive company, which also provides a host of other communications products to consumer and business users. CAPS players, though, have recently been focusing on how much of a driver the iPhone could be for the company.

One CAPS player, jeffacheek, notes that though there's been "lots of hype surrounding the iPhone release," the fact that AT&T is the sole distributor for the iPhone in the U.S. could lead to gains in market share. He notes that the iPhone could help AT&T continue to "build a solid foundation that is needed to stay ahead of Verizon ..."

Over the past year, AT&T certainly hasn't been a laggard in the Lord, Abbett portfolio, as it has outpaced the S&P 500 by 17 percentage points. The question now may be whether the iPhone can help push the company, and the stock, even further.

Eager to read more commentary from the CAPS community on these Lord, Abbett-owned stocks? Hop on over to CAPS and start interacting with the other 30,000-plus rated CAPS players. While you're checking out these stocks, you can also find out more about more than 4,700 other stocks that are currently rated on CAPS.

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Fool contributor Matt Koppenheffer does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned. Though it may not invest like a pro, The Fool's disclosure policy skateboards like a pro. Rumor has it that it will be prominently featured in the next Tony Hawk video game.