Dave Sather is a Certified Financial Planner™ and owner of Sather Financial Group. His column, Money Matters, publishes every other week.
Each year, the trip to Omaha for the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting continuously offers deeper engagement for learning — often in places never expected. Although the actual event is Saturday, the opportunities start well before and extend well past.
One of our due diligence meetings involved a quiet but thoughtful conversation with famed investment manager, Wally Weitz.
Weitz, who calls Nebraska home, is known as the “Other Oracle of Omaha.” He is not flashy or loud. You could easily confuse him for a professor or an accountant. However, his understated persona would rather let the results speak for themselves.
Although the hour long conversation had many worthwhile aspects, it was the discussion on the controversial pharma company, Valeant, which caught my attention.
Between January of 2012 and July of 2015 Valeant’s stock price increased an amazing 435%. It was the darling of the hedge fund community and high profile investors like Bill Ackman. Weitz had a position in the company, too.
Over the past three years we had quizzed the deep thinking investor about the position. At the time, no one could complain about the meteoric increase.
Despite the impressive performance Weitz chose to exit the holding in the fall of 2015.
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About The Author: Dave Sather
Dave Sather is a CFP and President of Sather Financial Group, a $600 million firm managing individual accounts, in Victoria, Texas. Dave has degrees in business from Texas Lutheran University and Texas A&M University. Dave is also Chairman of the Board of Business Bank of Texas and serves on the Investment Committee and Board of Regents at Texas Lutheran University. He developed and teaches the Bulldog Investment Company internship at Texas Lutheran University (www.BulldogInvestmentCo.com).
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