Highly Regarded Value Investor’s New Stock Moves

Willis Towers Watson PLC (NASDAQ:WLTW)

– Shares Held By Abrams Capital (as of December 31): 1.18 Million

– Value of Holding (as of December 31): $144.7 Million

Moving on, Willis Towers Watson PLC (NASDAQ:WLTW) was another stock that made its debut in Abrams Capital’s equity portfolio during the fourth quarter. However, during that time several other hedge funds that we track sold off their stakes in the company, as the number of investors betting on the global advisory, broking and solutions company fell by 10 to 31, while the aggregate value of their holdings in it shrank by $49.35 million to $279.41 million. Willis Towers Watson PLC (NASDAQ:WLTW)’s stock has not moved much since Willis Group merged with Towers Watson last year. For its fiscal 2016 fourth quarter, the company reported EPS of $1.88, beating analysts’ estimate by $0.26, on revenue of $1.93 billion, which was $30 million less than what analysts had estimated. On February 14, analysts at Citigroup reiterated their ‘Buy’ rating on the stock while setting a price target of $156 on it, suggesting potential upside of nearly 22%.

Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX)

– Shares Held By Abrams Capital (as of December 31): 3.05 Million

– Value of Holding (as of December 31): $294.42 Million

Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX) was another new portfolio holding of Abrams Capital at the end of 2016, becoming its fourth-largest equity holding in terms of value at the end of the year. Being a prime merger-arbitrage play, several other hedge funds also initiated a stake in Time Warner Inc (NYSE:TWX) during the fourth quarter, including Simon Davies‘ Sand Grove Capital Partners and Robert Emil Zoellner’s Alpine Associates. During that time, the number of investors in our system that were long the stock increased by a whopping 70% to 94, with the aggregate value of their holdings in the company more than doubling to $6.92 billion.  Time Warner Inc’s stock has registered a gain of over 46% in the last year, mostly on the back of the buyout offer made by AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), which was announced in October. The stock is currently trading at a 9% discount to the $107.50 per share price offered by AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), suggesting considerable uncertainty regarding completion of the deal. In order to overcome some of the regulatory hurdles that surround the deal, Time Warner announced on February 13 that it plans to sell one of its broadcast stations in Atlanta.

Disclosure: None