Julian Robertson on CNBC

I don't intend this blog to be a guru watch sort of site where I post links to articles, interviews and other information on my favorite investors.  There are a lot of websites/blogs that do that.

But I will mention things when they are relevant to some things I mention here.

Julian Robertson says in this CNBC interview  that he sees a lot of opportunities in the current stock market even though he is pretty sure Greece will default.  This is important to note because many investors will shy away from stocks due to all sorts of macro concerns.  Many great investors will take note of the problems, but that will not keep them away from great investment opportunities.  (It is true,though, that unlike Buffett, in Robertson's case he may have all sorts of other trades on to hedge away various macro risks).

Robertson has been a big fan of Apple stock for a while now and he said that in the 1980s, a stock of this quality would be trading three to four times where it is trading now.  I know, I know, this ain't the 80s.  But still, we get his point.  He also said that Google is very attractive (it is interesting to hear this right after my Google post: Is Google Cheap?)

Julian Robertson is one of my heroes and he does have a tremendous long term track record with his  Tiger Management.  He returned more than 30%/year from 1980 to 1998 (so they said on CNBC, leaving out his not so good years 1999/2000, but that's OK.  I still dig Julian Robertson).

By the way, they flashed Tiger Management's holdings on the screen and I quickly jotted it down (it's sourced to Stockpickr.com so you can see it there too, I suppose):

Name of company        % of portfolio
Apple                            9.7%
Amazon                        7.98%
Valeant                         6.81%
Mastercard                   6.73% 
Goldman Sachs            6.11%
Visa                              5.87%
Wuxi Pharma               4.98%
Teva Pharma                4.78%
Time Warner Cable     4.73%
Qualcomm                   4.63%

I'm not sure if these percent of portfolios are accurate, but if it is these are pretty concentrated positions, which is consistent with the focused, concentrated approach advocated by some of the best investors (Buffett/Munger of course, Joel Greenblatt and many others).

I also like Goldman Sachs, especially down here.  It is pretty cheap for some of the best minds in the business with the hardest working staff, and strong culture of cooperation (instead of turf wars which are more typical at other investment banks).  Maybe I'll post something about Goldman Sachs and some of these other Tiger holdings at some point.

It is interesting to note that Mastercard is also a large holding of one of Berkshire Hathaways new investment manager hires.