The SEC requires that investment managers with more than $100 million in assets file a 13-F form, disclosing their holdings each quarter. Here’s how you can use it to invest like your favorite famous investors.
For many investors, they may not find out what influential investors bought until they see it on a financial news site such as CNBC:
(Click to enlarge)
You may be wondering how CNBC finds this information, or how you can find this information for other big name investors.
If investors meet the SEC’s criteria for assets and holdings, they are required to file 13F forms with the SEC each quarter. So, every 3 months investors can get a fresh look at the holdings of the most influential investors.
In the article above, we can see that the big news was Buffett adding Starz company stock to his portfolio. Specifically, he bought 5.62 million shares of the media company. Where can you find that information?
What Stock Warren Buffett is Buying?
Search for 13F filings from his company (Berkshire Hathaway) on the SEC EDGAR database, found here:
http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html
Choose the appropriate result:
This will give you a long list of all filings by Berkshire Hathaway. All you are interested in right now is the 13f filings, so search by filing type (13f) to narrow your results:
Once the results are narrowed down, click the white “Documents” button for the filing you wish to view. Below, we are showing the May 2013 filing.
Click the document you wish to view (both of the files shown below will give you the information you want).
As you scroll down you will see a list of companies and stock holdings of Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway, the market value of the holdings and the number of shares held by Buffett.
Below we have highlighted the Starz holding, which shows 2,622,340 and 3,000,000 share holdings. Added together that totals 5.62 million shares, just as CNBC reported.
This 13f filing gives investors a snapshot of Buffett’s portfolio at the time of filing. You will have to compare this filing with previous filings to see changes and additions to Berkshire’s portfolio. Investors will notice that Starz is not listed on Berkshire’s February filing.
For the curious, what are Buffett’s top stock holdings?
American Express (Ticker: AXP) $10.2 billion
Coca Cola (Ticker: KO) $16.1 billion
IBM (Ticker: IBM) $14.5 billion
Proctor and Gamble (Ticker: PG) $4 billion
Walmart (Ticker: WMT) $3.6 billion
and Wells Fargo (Ticker: WFC) $16.9 billion
You can find this information on the SEC’s website for any investor with over $100 million in assets under management.
Of course, nothing says that a stock will do well because Warren Buffett (or any other investor) buys the stock. Be sure any holding in your portfolio does not expose you to significant risk.
