SQ Advisors has roughly $1.2 billion in its equity portfolio, which is heavily weighted with stocks from the financial and services sectors. Overseen by manager Lou Simpson, the fund has seen growth of a little more than one percent so far this quarter.
Topping the list of stocks in the hedge fund is Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.B). This week of April 8, the stock closed at a new 52-week high of $106.33. Consider this. Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.B) shares almost tripled the S&P 500‘s 11.8% return over the last 12 months, with a 30.1% gain, noted Motley Fool writer Daniel Sparks.
Then there is TE Connectivity Ltd. (NYSE:TEL). It touts itself as a technology leader in connecting power, data and signal in everything from automotive and aerospace to broadband communications, consumer, energy and industrial applications.
The stock has risen steadily since October, closing on Wednesday, within $.85 of its 52-week high of $41.76. We’ll get a better idea of how the company is faring on April 24, when it reports its earnings for the second quarter ended March 1. The street is expecting earnings per share to be $.71. It was $.68 last year.
TE Connectivity Ltd. (NYSE:TEL)’s market cap is in line with its peer Corning Incorporated (NASDAQ:GLW). It is $17.5 billion compared to Corning Incorporated (NASDAQ:GLW)’s $19.7 billion cap. Other competitors include Alcatel Lucent SA (ADR) (NYSE:ALU) and Molex Incorporated (NASDAQ:MOLX)
S! Advisors owns about three million shares of Oracle Corporated (NASDAQ:ORCL). This stock enjoyed a brief jump during this week. That partially stemmed from Pacific Crest Securities reiterating its outperform rating on the stock.
This is significant considering the tumble the company’s stock price took following the release of its third quarter earnings in March. Needless to say the company missed Wall Street estimates.
However, since meeting with Oracle Corporated (NASDAQ:ORCL) execs, Pacific Crest Securities’ Brendan Barnicle said he understands that the miss largely stemmed from internal issues plaguing the company. It had less to do with a drop in demand for Oracle Corporated (NASDAQ:ORCL) products. Barnicle noted that Oracle Corporated (NASDAQ:ORCL) will likely show better results for its fourth quarter as it improves its internal problems; so there is upside in Oracle Corporated (NASDAQ:ORCL) to $44 a share. It reports those earnings on June 17.
In the meantime, a challenge the company faces is trying to increase its market share in the cloud computing business. Called Software-as-a-Service model, the service is ideal for those who don’t want to own a license for their Oracle Corporated (NASDAQ:ORCL) software. Customers get one monthly expense that includes Oracle software, support, hosting, and application management. This is a move away from the way customers traditionally bought products from Oracle, which was by purchasing the software through sales of licenses upfront.
The cloud computing space is growing more crowded by the day, it seems, as companies realize the cost-savings and efficiencies they can achieve through the services. Oracle’s chief competitors are Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT), Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Rackspace Hosting, Inc. (NYSE:RAX) and salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM).
Owning about 2.7 million shares of Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC), the value of this holding for SQ Advisors is roughly $95 million. All eyes have been on the company’s earnings for the first quarter. Specifically, investors and traders were looking to see how the bank’s mortgage business fared. Over the course of 2012, the bank originated roughly $524 billion in mortgages. That’s about a third of all of the mortgages in the U.S. In its Q1 results, Wells Fargo reported solid EPS of 92 cents, outpacing consensus estimates of 88 cents, but revenues missed by 1.5%.
On tax day, April 15th , Charles Schwab Corp (NYSE:SCHW) will report its earnings for the first quarter. As the provider of several financial services, including securities brokerage, banking, money management, and financial advisory services, the firm has an impressive market cap of roughly $22 billion. Its peers include E TRADE Financial Corporation (NYSE:ETFC) and TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. (NYSE:AMTD).
On the whole, SQ’s position in Schwab is its fifth largest, but the company’s year-to-date performance has been impressive, returning over 16%. The rest of this hedgie’s top picks–Wells Fargo, Oracle, TE Connectivity and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK.B) — each represent a respectable play in their own right. To see the fund’s entire 13F portfolio, continue reading here, on Insider Monkey.
Disclosure: none
