Dodge & Cox Buys Baidu; Adds Nokia; Sells Dell, JC Penney

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Dodge & Cox Funds is one of the largest mutual funds founded by Van Duyn Dodge and E. Morris Cox amid the Great Depression in 1930. The mutual fund manages approximately $104 billion investments under its different mutual funds including Stock Fund, Global Stock Fund, International Stock Fund, Balanced Fund, and Income Fund. Dodge & Cox’s Stock Fund generated 11.74% and 5.20% returns in the first and second quarter of the current fiscal year, respectively.

Dodge & cox fund

Based on its latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Dodge & Cox Funds’ second quarter portfolio has a market value of $84, 200,750,000 higher than the amount of its total stockholdings of $81,383,688,961 in the previous quarter.

Dodge & Cox new stockholdings

During the period, the mutual fund acquired seven new stocks including Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (NASDAQ:FOXA) 47,246,074 shares, Apache Corporation (NYSE:APA) 6,810,800 shares, Weatherford International Ltd (NYSE:WFT) 35,976,902 shares, Baidu.com, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:BIDU) 4,567,841 shares, Coach, Inc. (NYSE:COH) 6,736,200 shares, Automatic Data Processing (NASDAQ:ADP) 2,920 shares, and Unitedhealth Group Inc. (NYSE:UNH) 1,079,766 shares.

Added stock positions

Dodge & Cox Funds significantly increased its positions in the ADT Corp (NYSE:ADT) by 198% or 13, 378, 929 bringing its total stockholding in the company to 20,110,537 shares worth $801,405,000; Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) by 17,744,100 shares to 55,470,068 shares worth $789,339,000; and Nokia Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:NOK) (BIT:NOKIV) (HEL:NOKIV) by 52,084,290 shares with $656,728,000 market value.

The mutual fund also increased its stake of Tyco International Ltd. (NYSE:TYC) by 13,653, 125 shares to 28,034,850 shares worth $102,369,000; Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras SA (ADR) (NYSE:PBR) by 13,007.774 shares to 36,662,474 shares worth $537,472,000; Chevron Corporation (NYSE:CVX) by 3,100,613 shares to 12,141,619 shares worth $1,436,839,000 among others.

Reduced and sold out positions

Dodge & Cox Funds dumped a large number of shares in the following companies: BMC Software, Inc (NASDAQ:BMC) by 12,282,028 shares, Boston Scientific Corporation (NYSE:BSX) by 14,195,693 shares, Computer Sciences Corporation (NASDAQ:CSC) by 3,559,175 shares, Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) 1,991,462 shares, BB&T Corporation (NYSE:BBT) by 840,350 shares and in many other stocks.

The mutual fund sold out its entire position in Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP), News Corp (NASDAQ:NWSA), and Agilent Technologies Inc (NYSE:A).

Both Dell Inc (NASDAQ:DELL) and J.C. Penney Company, Inc. (NYSE:JCP) became the center of media coverage over the past several months because of activism from Carl Icahn and Bill Ackman, respectively. Icahn is one of the largest investors of Dell, and he is fighting against the buyout proposal of the PC makers’ founder, Michael Dell together with Silver Lake Partners because he believes that bid undervalues the stock. He submitted his own proposal to acquire the company. Lately, Icahn filed a lawsuit against Dell’s board to keep the scheduled voting date and voting rules for the buyout proposal.

On the other hand, J.C. Penney, Inc. (NYSE:JCP) once again became the center of media coverage after Ackman demanded they speed up the search for a new CEO to replace Mike Ullman and to replace Tom Engibous as chairman of the board. The company said that Ackman’s decision was disruptive and counterproductive.  Yesterday, Ackman stepped down as director of the company.

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