Wally Weitz's Wealthtrack Interview

A few months ago, value investor Wally Weitz of Weitz Investment Management sat down with Consuelo Mack in an episode of Wealthtrack.

In the interview, Weitz touches on the concept of valuable losses, or finding opportunities where others are seeing losses.


He says, "Selling begets more selling; people scare themselves and each other and almost always overshoot."

He has an 'on deck' list of stocks they've researched and are just waiting for the right price to buy.  That said, he says it's easier for him to buy stocks he's already involved with during downswings rather than jump on new names because he's more comfortable/familiar with management and how they will act during downturns, etc.

Weitz says that the fund he particularly runs is long/short but not designed to be market neutral or anything like that.  He noted he's typically 90% long and 30% short, running around 60% net long.  He mentioned they'd been short Sears (SHLD) in the past.

During the interview, Weitz talks about why he likes Liberty Global (LBTYA/K) and why he sold Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX).

Other investments Weitz mentions include Liberty Broadband (LBRDA), Charter Communications (CHTR), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A/B), Wells Fargo (WFC).

Embedded below is the video of Weitz's interview on Wealthtrack:

Wally Weitz Long Liberty Media: Invest For Kids Chicago

We're posting up notes from Invest For Kids Chicago 2014.  Next up is Wally Weitz of Weitz Investment Management who pitched long Liberty Media.


Wally Weitz's Invest For Kids Chicago Presentation

Idea: Liberty Media 

•    Split up yesterday when split into two parts. Liked them together or separate. Cheap due to the complexity of Liberty.
•    Weitz are value investors in the Buffett mold, think like business owner, IV is the discounted value of cash flow.
•    Think of it as an investment company built to evolve over time.
•    All Liberty companies follow the same game plan. Generate FCF, maintain appropriate leverage, buyback shares and sell in a tax efficient manner.
•    Like the main components of Liberty Media/Broadband (Siri/CHTR). Both are subscription businesses.
•    Liberty Broadband (LBRDA / K) owns ~26% of Charter and is doing a rights offering to raise cash. Trades for $50, think Broadband is worth $58 per share. If you like CHTR, this is a cheap way to own it.
•    Liberty Media you get extra bonuses (hidden assets/options). They won a court case with Vivendi and Vivendi owns them roughly ~$3 per share (might take time), and the Atlanta Braves. Thinks it could be worth more than the ~$600MM current price.
•    Own 27% of Live Nation, which owns ticketmaster which spent years going over a tech overhaul that improves margins.
•    Broadband owns Charter shares, cash and Time Warner Cable shares. Also the opportunity for Malone to buy other cable subscribers outside of CHTR and then sell it into a parent company through a reverse Morris trust (did this with Direct TV). Always optionality. Malone always has multiple plans.

Weitz was also recently interviewed in the latest issue of Graham & Doddsville.


Be sure to check out the rest of the hedge fund presentations from Invest For Kids Chicago here.

Wally Weitz Interview: Columbia Business School's Graham & Doddsville

Columbia Business School is out with the Fall 2014 edition of their investment newsletter: Graham & Doddsville.  In it, they interview Wally Weitz of Weitz Investment Management, Guy Gottfried of Rational Investment Group, as well as the gentlemen from Development Capital Partners.

Additionally, the newsletter features student pitches on short B&M European Value Retail and long Countrywide Plc.

As always, this is definitely a worthwhile read.

Embedded below is the Fall 2014 issue of Graham & Doddsville:


You can download a .pdf copy here.

For more great stuff from past issues of this newsletter, be sure to check out Lee Ainslie's interview as well.