Weitz Investment Management Inc. has filed its 13 F for the quarter ending March 31 with the SEC. The filing can be found at this link. Weitz chose to make relatively few big changes in the three months, adding just one new position to its long portfolio, and closing positions in five equities. The company saw its long equity assets under management grow from $2,261,755,812 at the end of 2012 to $2,456,314,659 by the end of March 2013.
Two new equities were added in the three months, accounting for 2.25 percent of the company’s 13F holdings at the end of March 2013. Weitz Investment Management Inc. bought 494,530 shares in Liberty Media Corp (NASDAQ:LMCA) (NASDAQ:LMCB), valued at $55,204,383 on the last day of March.
The five stocks that Weitz Investment Management Inc. decided to exit during the quarter were Newcastle Investment Corp. (NYSE:NCT), Anheuser-Busch InBev NV (NYSE:BUD) (EBR:ABI), Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE:RSG), and Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA). Of those five exits, Weitz only held more than 0.5 percent of its portfolio in one of the equities, Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL).
Between the last day of 2012 and the last day of March 2013, Weitz Investment Management Inc. sold 5,756,945 shares in Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL). Since the latest date on which the company could have closed that position, March 31st, and today, shares in the ailing PC maker have slumped by more than 6 percent. If the fund held shares in Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) for the full quarter and only sold out on the last possible day, they would have seen shares appreciate by more than 40 percent.
Apart from its entries and exits into positions, which Weitz Investment Management Inc. has kept few and far between, the company added to its positions in certain stocks, including a 808,980 addition to its holding in DIRECTV (NASDAQ:DTV) bringing its total holding to 2,224,800 shares valued at $125,901,432 at the end of March.
The firm’s biggest holdings are in Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX), 2,082,750 valued at $ 156,247,898, Aon PLC (NYSE:AON), 2,116,404 shares valued at $130,158,846, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B), 1,221,371 shares valued at $127826,854, DIRECTV (NASDAQ:DTV) as above, and Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE:RWT) 4,856,938 shares valued at $12,583,824. All values are taken from the 13F filing and represent the value of the stock on March 31st.
Another notable change in the period included a 4,067,440 share sell off of the firm’s holding in Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ), reducing its total holding to 1,731,130 at the end of the first quarter, valued at $41,270,139.
