Wallace Weitz Buys eBay, Liberty Media Capital; Sells Hewlett-Packard

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Wallace Weitz, president and founder of Weitz Investment Management, bought shares of three companies, reduced his stockholdings in 5 equities, and sold out his position in two companies during the first quarter of this year.

Weitz is among the investors who learned from Benjamin Graham, the legendary financial analyst known as the father of value investing. As an investor, Weitz practices a common-sense formula in investing: own a group of strong businesses purchased at deeply discounted prices. Using that investment philosophy, the funds under his management have consistently delivered outstanding results.

Weitz’s new acquisitions

During the first quarter, Weitz acquired 200 shares in eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY), 244,966 shares of Liberty Media Corp (NASDAQ:LMCA), and 65,000 shares of Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD).

eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) recently created a new group of engineers and designers as part of its Innovation and New Ventures Group that will focus on developing ways to integrate e-commerce to wearable and other connected devices. eBay launched its app on Samsung Galaxy Gear and Pebble smartwatch several weeks ago. According to the company, “We’re not focused on short-term revenue; we’re trying to see what the future looks like.”

The shares of eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) are up by nearly 4% to $54.90 per share at the time of this writing, around 1:23 PM in New York.

Last week, Liberty Media Corp (NASDAQ:LMCA) agreed to significantly reduce its stake in Barnes & Noble, Inc (NYSE:BKS). The media company did not reveal the reason behind its decision. Some market observers believe that the declining sales of the bookseller particularly its NOOK division is probably the reason. The stock is trading around $123.71 per share, down by almost 1%.

On the other hand, the stock price of Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) is up by over 2% to $185.87 per share today. The energy company’s oil and gas explorations are primarily located in the Spraberry field in West Texas (Permian Basin) and Eagle Ford Shale play in South Texas.  This year, the company plans to increase the number of its drilling wells from 100 to 115 and will focus on higher return areas in Northern Upton and Reagan counties in the Permian Basis.

Weitz’s sold out positions

Weitz sold out his entire stake in Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) and Southwestern Energy Company (NYSE:SWN). The shares of the PC maker are down by more than 1% to $32.30 per share while the equities of Southwester Energy are slightly higher at $46.67 per share.

Added and reduced stockholdings

During the quarter, Weitz increased his stockholdings in Liberty Global plc – Class C Ordinary Shares (NASDAQ:LBTYK) by 710,000 shares and Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings (NYSE:LH) by 15,000 shares.

He reduced his stake in Texas Instruments Incorporated (NASDAQ:TXN) by 130,000 shares, Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. (NYSE:MLM) by 40,000 shares, Range Resources Corp. (NYSE:RRC) by 90,000 shares, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) by 14,000 shares, and Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE:VRX) by 160,000 shares.

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