Invest Like a Pro

Fund managers overseeing millions -- or billions -- of dollars' worth of assets at the top funds don't get to where they are by accident. These are investors who 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 Fool's Champion Funds newsletter has put together a buffet of sharp managers that have collectively outperformed their benchmarks by nearly seven 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 American Century Investment Management. I've dug in to see what kind of moves American Century has been making and, to make things even more interesting, I compared its stocks with the opinions of the Fool's CAPS community.

Below are three companies that American Century bought more of between its June filing and its September filing ...

... and three for which the firm reduced its position.

Sources: CapitalIQ, Yahoo! Finance, and CAPS as of Dec. 24.

Now before you make any hasty moves, remember that we're looking at what American Century has done in retrospect. For all we know, since the latest 13-F filing, the firm has drastically changed its holdings in any or all of the above stocks. With that in mind, here are some further thoughts on these moves.

Happy, profitable holidays
Stock Advisor recommendation Amazon continues to be a battleground on CAPS. More than 2,000 CAPS players have weighed in on the stock, and the positive rating percentage of 65% has landed it two stars out of a possible five. The Amazon bulls and bears broadly fall into two camps -- those who think the rousing success of the company's business model trumps the heady stock price, and those who can't see past the huge earnings multiple.

It has been a huge year for Amazon's stock, and early reports suggest that it has been a huge year for online holiday shopping. While I love Amazon's business, I definitely fall in the bearish camp, based on price. In the near term, however, it may be a tough proposition to bet against Amazon's stock.

American Century may have been looking toward a big holiday season for Amazon when it juiced its holdings of the company's stock. The stock is up a bit over the past few months, but the big move that everyone is counting on would likely come once Amazon announces its fourth-quarter numbers. Of course, because everyone is already expecting a big fourth quarter, a report that falls short of spectacular could lead to a lot of shareholders cashing in some of their big gains from 2007.

Though many of CAPS' top players are bearish on Amazon, David Gardner, aka TMFBreakerDave, remains a staunch Amazon bull. Dave shares:

... that's how I approach this stock. Buy and hold -- patient investing has worked for me for this stock for nearly a decade. As John Candy said in "Splash" shortly before dropping a few more coins on the floor ... "When I find something that works, I stick with it."

So are you with American Century and the CAPS Amazon bulls? Or do you have other ideas? Hop on over to CAPS and start interacting with the other 78,000-plus CAPS players. While you're weighing in on these stocks, you can also find out more about 5,000 other stocks that are rated on CAPS.

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