Billionaire Julian Robertson’s Latest Stock Picks Include ADT

Berkshire. One legend investing in another: Robertson initiated a position of about 220,000 shares in Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.B). We certainly agree that Warren Buffett is a great investor on average, and there is good reason for his holding company to trade at a premium to book value (its P/B ratio is 1.3); we’re at least as excited about Buffett’s own 13Fs as we are for any other investor. Find Warren Buffett’s favorite stocks. However, if an investor is going to be in Berkshire Hathaway for the long term they would have to be comfortable relying on Buffett to turn out to be as skilled a mentor as Robertson has been.

We would be wary of expecting Berkshire’s performance to remain steady post-succession, and so while we’re interested in the holding company we aren’t as passionate about it as Robertson perhaps is. We’re familiar with the advantages of spun-out companies, and ADT may be worth investigating, but the earnings multiples may be a bit high. Apple and Google- as a pure value stock and “growth at a reasonable price” play respectively- would be our top two targets for further research.

Disclosure: I own no shares of any stocks mentioned in this article.