For the first time in eight consecutive quarters, Akre Capital Holding’s largest position is not in Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA). That distinction now goes to Colfax Corp (NYSE:CFX) (11.80%) which the company increased its position in by 22.20%. American Tower Corp (NYSE:AMT) also leap-frogged Mastercard and represents 10.57% of Akre’s portfolio after the company added 21.07% to its position. It was these purchases that pushed each above Mastercard rather than a sale of Mastercard. Aker dropped it’s position by a mere .03% and Mastercard still accounts for 9.49% of its roughly $3.1 billion portfolio. Moody’s Corporation (NYSE:MCO) and Markel Corporation (NYSE:MKL) round out the top 5 holdings with very minor reductions of positions and account for 8.85% and 7.78% of Akre’s portfolio respectively.
Akre’s major additions and new purchases
The fund purchased 1,384,200 shares in Discovery Communications adding 346.05% to its position while doubling its positions in both Liberty Ventures and CarMax, Inc (NYSE:KMX) by purchasing 90,000 and 100,000 shares respectively. It raised its stake in ANSYS, Inc. (NASDAQ:ANSS) by 89.60% by purchasing an additional 44,800 shares in the company. All said, Akre increased its positions in 17 of the 41 companies that it is presently holding. Akre made three new purchases for the quarter acquiring 977,600 shares of SBA Communications Corporation (NASDAQ:SBAC). which now accounts for 2.85% of its portfolio. Akre also made small purchases of Roper Industries and Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) with the purchase of 79,000 and 4,446 shares respectively.
Aker’s exits and reductions
The fund seems to be reasonably happy with its present holdings and didn’t exit any positions in the first quarter. It did, however, reduce its positions in seven companies. By percentage it dropped 11.86% of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B) but this occurred by simply selling seven shares in Warren Buffett’s holding company. Most notable was a 9.99% reduction in Ross Stores, Inc. (NASDAQ:ROST) when Akre sold 181,105 shares in the retailer. It also sold 10,000 shares of Equinix Inc (NASDAQ:EQIX) reducing its position by 4.50%. There were four more stocks that the company sold but none of them represent even a tenth of a percent the aggregate portfolio. For the sake of thoroughness, however, these companies were Williams Companies, Inc. (NYSE:WMB), Annaly Capital Management, Inc. (NYSE:NLY), Hartford Financial Services Group Inc (NYSE:HIG) and Mastercard Inc (NYSE:MA).
