Each quarter the analyst community eagerly awaits the publication of the 13F forms by the leading US investment managers.

The releases, which have to be published within 45 days of the end of the quarter, are parsed for clues into what these ‘star’ managers are thinking about the world and about the markets.

Unsurprisingly, the quarterly filings by Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B:NYSE), led by legendary investor Warren Buffett, are some of the most sought after as they offer some insight into what the great man has been buying and selling.

As it turns out, last quarter Buffett reduced his number of publicly-quoted holdings from 45 to 41, the lowest since 2015, and added to his core stocks.

Out has gone a $640 million position in US housebuilder DR Horton (DHI:NYSE), while the top four holdings – Apple (AAPL:NASDAQ), Bank of America (BAC:NYSE), American Express (AXP:NYSE) and Coca-Cola (KO:NYSE) – have increased in size, as have the holdings in Amazon (AMZN:NASDAQ), Citigroup (C:NYSE) and Kraft Heinz (KHC:NYSE).

Among the other most searched-for filings are those by Duquesne Family Office, run by Stanley Druckenmiller; Pershing Square, run by Bill Ackman; and Greenlight Capital, run by David Einhorn; and Scion Asset Management, run by iconoclastic manager Michael Burry.

Druckenmiller increased his number of holdings last quarter, while lifting the size of his stakes in Microsoft (MSFT:NASDAQ) Nvidia (NVDA:NASDAQ) and Seagate (STX:NASDAQ) and exiting Alphabet (GOOG:NASDAQ) and T-Mobile US (TMUS:NASDAQ).

Ackman, who has just eight stocks in his Pershing Square Capital Management fund, made only one major change to the portfolio which was to take his holding in Lowe’s (LOW:NYSE) down from roughly $1.5 billion to under $300 million ahead of earnings next week.

The sale proceeds were spread across the remainder of the portfolio, which is still heavily skewed to consumer names such as Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG:NYSE), Hilton Hotels (HLT:NYSE) and Restaurant Brands (QSR:NYSE).

Meanwhile, David Einhorn’s Greenlight Capital continues to bet heavily on Green Brick Partners (GRBK:NYSE), a $2.5 billion homebuilder and land developer in Florida, Georgia and Texas where the fund has a holding of almost $600 million.

Other notable positions include thermal coal producer Consol Energy (CEIX:NYSE), insurer Brighthouse Financial (BHF:NASDAQ) and technology services firm Kyndryl Holdings (KD:NASDAQ), while the most notable sale was games maker Activision Blizzard (ATVI:NASDAQ). 

Find out how to access 13F files and other important information on US shares.

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