Dodge & Cox, a San Francisco based mutual fund managing five different funds, disclosed that its portfolio consisted of 71 stocks worth $53,948,557,000 during the fourth quarter of 2013.
Dodge & Cox: New positions
During the quarter, the Dodge & Cox team acquired 3,701,953 shares of Express Scripts Holding Company (NASDAQ:ESRX) at an average price of $70.24 per share. Currently, the stock is trading around $73.69 per share.
Express Scripts Holding Company (NASDAQ:ESRX) is a pharmacy benefit management (PBM) services provider in Canada and the United States. During the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, the company said it is well positioned for growth and emphasized that pharmacy is the right place to be. The company recently announced the appointment of Cathy Smith as new executive vice president and CFO. Smith is a former EVP of strategy and CFO at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT).
The Dodge and Cox team also purchased 2,071,000 shares of EMC Corp. (NASDAQ:EMC) at an average price of $25.15 per share. The stock is currently trading around $26.13 per share.
Research firm, Monnes Crespi and Hardt recently downgraded its rating for the stock from Buy to Neutral. On the other hand, UBS AG (NYSE:UBS) identified EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) as one of the top 5 IT stocks expected to deliver good returns this year. The company is the leader in large-scale storage, and it owns a large stake in VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW), a cloud software provider.
Dodge & Cox: Added positions
During the quarter, the Dodge & Cox team increased its stockholdings in Forest Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:FRX) by 159% to 3,119,644 shares. The mutual fund acquired its additional stake in the company at an average price of $60.03 a share. The Dodge & Cox team initially acquired 1,960,669 shares in the quarter last year at an average price of $42.79 per share. The stock is currently trading at about $68.92 per share.
The mutual fund also boosted its stake in UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE:UNH) and eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) to 2,800,000 shares and 4,182,137 shares, respectively.
Dodge & Cox has total of 6,793,100 shares of Unitedhealth and bought its additional stake at an average price of $75.30 per share. The mutual fund had been trading the stock since the third quarter of 2007 and initially bought 6,840,000 shares for $48.43 each and then sold out its entire stake in the third quarter of 2010. It again initiated a position in the company in the second quarter of 2012. The stock price of Unitedhealth Group Inc. (NYSE:UNH) is trading around $72.58 per share.
The mutual fund purchased a total of 11,382,246 shares of eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY). It acquired the additional shares for the quarter at an average price of $54.89 per share. The stock is currently trading around $53.79 a share.
The Dodge & Cox team also purchased 3,095,810 shares of Coach, Inc. (NYSE:COH), 7,364,173 shares of Weatherford International Ltd (NYSE:WFT), 12,000,000 shares of Symantec Corp (NASDAQ:SYMC), and 3,468,500 shares of Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) among others.
Dodge & Cox: Reduced and sold out positions
The Dodge & Cox team reduced its stake in General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), Merck & Co (NYSE:MRK), Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC), and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) among others.
The mutual fund sold out its entire position in Genworth Financial Inc (NYSE:GNW), Amdocs Limited (NASDAQ:DOX), and Molex Inc (NASDAQ:MOLX).
