Billionaire Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Financial Holdings Boosts Stakes in Kennedy-Wilson, U.S. Bancorp, Johnson & Johnson

Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. boosted its stake in U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) by 384,800 shares to 408,000 shares valued at $20.9 million during the fourth quarter. Cliff Asness‘ AQR Capital Management also bought 924,292 shares increasing its position to more than 3 million shares. U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) is the parent company of U.S. Bank which is the fifth-largest commercial bank in the US. It recently announced a leadership change where Andy Cecere, (the current President and COO) will succeed Richard Davis as the CEO in April. For its fourth quarter, U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB) reported revenue of $5.39 billion which was above the $5.36 billion estimate, while earnings of $0.82 per share was in-line with the consensus estimate. The stock has outperformed the market by returning almost 40% in the last year.

Fairfax Financial Holdings’s holding in Johnson & Johnson’s (NYSE:JNJ) was raised by 82% to 151,250 shares worth $17 million between October and December. Jim Simons’ Renaissance Technologies also added 1.9 million shares to its position containing 3.4 million shares as of the end of December. The US healthcare giant has recently announced that it would acquire the Swiss biotech company Actelion for $30 billion. The acquisition will give Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) ownership rights to Actelion’s portfolio of rare disease medicines and will further strengthen J&J’s drug portfolio. Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)’s stock has returned over 80% in the last five years and has a dividend yield of 2.75%.

Fairfax Financial Holdings raised its holding in USG Corporation (NYSE:USG) by 970% over the quarter to 351,222 shares worth $10 million held at the end of the fourth quarter. Other investors bullish on USG Corporation (NYSE:USG) include AQR Capital Management and Bluecrest Capital Management, which bought more than 30,000 shares each and reported holding 63,704 shares and 33,566 shares in their latest 13Fs, respectively. The American manufacturer and distributor of building materials could be among the beneficiaries of the proposed multi-billion dollar “Trump’s wall” to be built along the U.S.-Mexico border.  The stock is up by 20% in the last six months and is trading close to its 52-week high. For the most recent fourth quarter, USG Corporation (NYSE:USG) reported earnings of $0.44 per share on revenues of $734 million, beating consensus estimates of $0.35 earnings per share on revenues of $726.6 million.

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