Fourth Quarter Was Barrow's Slowest Since 2012

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Feb 04, 2015
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Guru James Barrow (Trades, Portfolio), executive director of Dallas-based investment firm Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney & Strauss and lead portfolio manager for the Vanguard Windsor II and Selected Value Funds, wasn’t as busy in the fourth quarter as he was in the third quarter.

He traded in 31 stocks in the fourth quarter, Barrow’s fewest quarterly transactions since the third quarter of 2012.

In the fourth quarter of 2014, Barrow bought stock in four companies that are new to his portfolio – FMC Corporation (FMC, Financial), Mattel Inc (MAT, Financial), FMSA Holdings Inc (FMSA, Financial) and HSBC Holdings PLC (HSBC, Financial). The FMC and Mattel purchases each had impacts of 0.02% on his portfolio.

Barrow bought 2,633,678 shares of FMC, a Philadelphia-based chemical manufacturing company, for an average price of $56.19 per share. He bought 456,406 shares of Mattel, a California-based toy company, for an average price of $30.76 per share.

He added to his stakes in nine companies – Ford Motor Co (F, Financial), CRH PLC (CRH, Financial), Sanofi (SNY, Financial), Ameriprise Financial Inc (AMP, Financial), Meredith Corp (MDP, Financial), Barnes Group Inc (B, Financial), Texas Capital Bancshares Inc (TCBI, Financial), Gran Tierra Energy Inc (GTE, Financial) and Photronics Inc (PLAB).

Barrow bought 17,108,220 of Ford Motor, an automaker based in a suburb of Detroit, for an average price of $14.73 per share. The transaction had a 0.36% impact on Barrow’s portfolio. Ford is the second-largest stake in Barrow’s portfolio.

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He bought 7,771,593 shares of CRH, an Ireland-based building materials company, for an average price of $22.62 per share. That acquisition had a 0.25% impact on his portfolio.

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Reductions and divestitures

Barrow sold his stakes in seven companies – Helmerich & Payne Inc (HP), Murphy USA Inc (MUSA), Covance Inc (CVD), Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (WBA), Coach Inc (COH), Now Inc (DNOW) and Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDS.A).

The sale of 1,342,177 shares of Helmerich & Payne, a Tulsa-based contract drilling company, for an average price of $77.93 had a -0.18% impact on Barrow’s portfolio.

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He sold portions of his stakes in 11 companies – E I du Pont de Nemours & Company (DD), Public Service Enterprise Group Inc (PEG), Anthem Inc (ANTM), Capital One Financial Corp (COF), BP PLC (BP), Murphy Oil Corp (MUR), Marathon Oil Corp (MRO), Scotts Miracle Gro Co (SMG), Aegion Corp (AEGN), Healthsouth Corp (HLS) and LinnCo LLC (LNCO).

Barrow sold 12,516,695 shares of du Pont, a Delaware-based chemical company, for an average price of $70.34 per share. That had a -1.18% impact on the portfolio.

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