Chou Associates, the investment management firm headed by Francis Chou, reported that its equity portfolio has a market value of $291,175,000 in the third quarter.
The investment management firm’s 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed that it acquired 21,000 shares of Posco during the quarter. Its stake in the company has a market value of around $736,000.
Posco is an integrated steel producer. The company is based in South Korea. The shares of Posco are trading at $38.49 per share, down by more than 4% at the time of this writing, around 11:17 AM in New York on Friday.
Over the past 52 weeks, Posco’s stock trade between $34.48 and $71.33 per share. The company lost more than 39% of stock value year-to-date.
Chou increased positions
During the quarter, Chou Associates increased its positions in Resolute Forest Products, Ascent Capital Group and China Yuchai International.
Chou Associates bought additional 200,000 shares of Resolute Forest Products. The firm currently owns 4,281,218 shares in the company with a market value of around $35.587 million.
Resolute Forest Products is the second largest position of Chou Associates in its equity portfolio. The company offers forest products including newsprint, specialty papers, market pulp, and wood products.
Analysts at TD Securities recently reaffirmed their Hold rating on Resolute Forest Products and issued a price target of $9.00 per share. The shares of the company are trading $7.66 per share at the time of this writing.
The shares of Resolute Forest Products traded between $7.21 and $19.26 per share over the past 52 weeks. The company lost 56% of stock value year-to-date.
Chou Associates increased its stake in Ascent Capital Group by 176,591 shares to 316,591 shares. Its stake in the company has a market value of approximately $8.671 million.
Ascent Capital Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Monitronics International, a provider of security alarm monitoring and related services to businesses and residential subscribers in Canada and the United States.
The stock price of Ascent Capital Group declined from its highest trading price of $63.23 per share to as low as $20.63 per share over the past 52 weeks. The stock is trading $23 per share at the time of this writing. The company lost 56% of stock value year-to-date.
During the period, Chou Associates increased its position in China Yuchai International by 47,827 shares to 73,364 shares. Its stake in the company is worth approximately $908,000.
Over the past 52 weeks, the stock price of China Yuchai International dropped from $20.96 per share to as low as $11.85 per share. The stock is trading at $12.83 per share at the time of this writing. The company lost 32% of stock value year-to-date.
Chou reduces stakes in Nokia, AstraZeneca
During the quarter, Chou Associates sold 1,250,000 shares of Nokia. The firm still owns 3,750,000 Nokia shares, which has a market value of around $25.432 million. Nokia is the third largest position of the firm in its equity portfolio.
The firm also sold 13,000 shares of AztraZeneca. It still owns 13,000 shares in the company worth $822,000.
