Fund managers overseeing millions -- or billions! -- of dollars worth of assets at the top funds don't get to be where they are by accident. These investors know how to pick apart a business, find companies that are going to excel, and buy stocks at reasonable prices.
For the Fools who don't have the time or inclination to pick individual stocks on their own, the Motley Fool Champion Funds newsletter has put together a buffet of sharp managers that have collectively outperformed their benchmarks by more than 13 percentage points.
The rest of us, though, 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 cards via quarterly 13-F filings. This week I'm looking at the holdings of BlackRock
Below are three stocks that BlackRock IM bought more of between its June filing and September filing ...
|
Stock |
Percentage Change in Position |
Current Market Value of Position |
CAPS Rating (out of 5) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Chesapeake
Energy |
59% |
$61.2 million |
***** |
|
PepsiCo |
57% |
$455.8 million |
***** |
|
Valero Energy |
56% |
$577.6 million |
***** |
... and three that the firm lightened its position on.
|
Stock |
Percentage Change in Position |
Current Market Value of Position |
CAPS Rating (out of 5) |
|---|---|---|---|
|
The Bear Stearns Companies |
(83%) |
$23.5 million |
* |
|
Countrywide |
(80%) |
$15.7 million |
* |
|
Coach |
(65%) |
$33.3 million |
*** |
Now before you jump to it and make any hasty moves, remember that we're looking at what BlackRock IM has done in retrospect. For all we know, the firm has drastically changed its holdings in any or all of the above stocks since the last 13-F filing. With that in mind, here are some further thoughts on these moves.
A CAPS frame of mind
It seems most CAPS players would support the moves that BlackRock IM made during the third quarter. After all, they were buying stocks that CAPS players rated at the top of the heap, and sold off stocks that the community hasn't been too hot on.
On the selling side, the firm looks like it might have been working on the premise that the financial markets are going to continue to struggle -- putting more pressure on brokerage houses like Bear Stearns and major mortgage lenders like Countrywide. And with all that financial turmoil going on, perhaps they're expecting that consumers will tighten the spigot and hold off on buying that new Coach purse.
On the other side, in turbulent times it's hard to go wrong with a solid name like PepsiCo, whose products people seem to want to drink (and eat!) through thick and thin. Along with that, energy has been a good place to be lately, as oil seems practically unstoppable. Commenting on his bullish call for Motley Fool Inside Value pick Chesapeake Energy, CAPS player bravus wrote, "[It's] hard to go past energy stocks at the moment. Even if we fall back from the current record highs, they're not making any more fossil fuels, and I suspect we'll never see $50 oil again."
So are you with BlackRock IM? Or do you have other ideas? Hop on over to CAPS and start interacting with the other 74,000-plus CAPS players. While you're weighing in on these stocks, you can also find out more about more than 5,000 other stocks that are currently rated on CAPS.
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