The Maestro's Movers: Neil Woodford's Big Buys and Sells in September 2015

Stock stalking is a weird hobby.

In general I do not "follow" any particular investor's activities. However, there are a couple that I have followed of sorts because I like their investment style. One of them is Neil Woodford

I watch Woodford's fund quite carefully to get some ideas. In particular, doing this with Woodford is extremely easy as--I am sure many of you know this--he publishes the entire breakdown of his fund each month. A very unusual action.

Since launch I have been assiduously collecting this data and building a little spreadsheet to see how things are changing. I've realised that this work--which is not a tiny amount--may be of interest to some of you.

So here I will offer a little breakdown of the companies that Woodford has bought and sold in September 2015.

Methodology

First, a little on my methodology. Woodford provides two bits of information each month which I use for this:

1. The total value of all the assets in his fund (this month, £7.07 billion);
2. The percentage weight each company has within the fund.

Using this information, I do a couple of things:

1. Work out the value of the company holding (dividing the fund size by the company's weight)
2. Using the share price on the day the snapshot of the fund was taken, I work out how many shares (approximately) Woodford holds in the company.

Now this provides an estimate of his shareholding in each company from month to month. It can then be used to work out what his big movers were during the month.

This is where it may be interesting to you.

Woodford's Big Buys in September

So what companies has Woodford being buying into?

Well, here is a list--according to my estimates--of listed companies that he increased his shareholding in by 3% or more. Those in bold were not in last months list of big buys. Those in italics were in last months big sells last month:

1	AbbVie	NYSE:ABBV	447.18%
2	Game Digital	LON:GAME	380.38%
3	Verseon	LON:VSN	174.09%
4	Roche	VTX:ROG	43.23%
5	Halosource Reg S	LON:HALO	32.13%
6	AA	LON:AA	22.48%
7	Essentra	LON:ESNT	19.70%
8	NewRiver Retail	LON:NRR	17.49%
9	Provident Financial	LON:PFG	16.85%
10	Alkermes	NASDAQ:ALKS	15.53%
11	G4S	LON:GFS	14.22%
12	Prothena	NASDAQ:PRTA	13.42%
13	Legal & General	LON:LGEN	12.61%
14	Babcock International	LON:BAB	11.64%
15	Reynolds American	NYSE:RAI	10.93%
16	Next	LON:NXT	10.08%
17	Midatech Pharma	LON:MTPH	9.97%
18	Rolls-Royce	LON:RR	8.37%
19	BAE Systems	LON:BA	7.18%
20	Lancashire	LON:LRE	6.90%
21	GlaxoSmithKline	LON:GSK	6.85%
22	Rightster	LON:RSTR	6.70%
23	British American Tobacco	LON:BATS	6.57%
24	Northwest Biotherapeutics	NASDAQ:NWBO	6.52%
25	Spire Healthcare	LON:SPI	6.29%
26	IP	LON:IPO	5.15%
27	4D Pharma	LON:DDDD	5.13%
28	Zegona	LON:ZEG	4.20%
29	Oakley Capital	LON:OCL	3.64%
30	Mercia Technologies	LON:MERC	3.40%
31	AstraZeneca	LON:AZN	3.01%

Woodford's Big Sells in September

So what companies has Woodford been dropping?

Again, this is a list of those which have dropped at least 3% or more. Those in bold were not in last months list of big sells. Those in italics were in last months big buys last month:

1	Amlin	LON:AML	-98.72%
2	Idex	NYSE:IEX	-12.63%
3	Royal Mail	LON:RMG	-5.00%
4	Synairgen	LON:SNG	-4.54%

Woodford's Moves 

As with the last few months, Woodford has been buying quite widely but selling very narrowly.

The biggest sale was that of the reinsurer Amlin. Recently he had been building up this stake before the announced acquisition by Mitsui Sumitomo. He has no doubt since sold out (mostly) with a pretty nice looking capital gains.

I have also sold out of my Amlin holding and reinvested the proceeds into Unilever. For Woodford, it seems to have provided further firepower to expand some of his other holdings. Indeed, three of his holdings he increased in size significantly including AbbVie

As usual, the FTSE 100 giants feature heavily in the buys list. Some familiar names, Legal & General continues to attract a noticeably higher investment than others. What is more, Rolls Royce with its still heavily depressed share price receives another healthy injection of cash. 

Some Caveats

Obviously, as with everything on this site, this list is not meant to be advice on what to buy (or sell). Also, these figures are all created from different levels of estimated data. 

The weightings are rounded as is the fund value. Share holdings are therefore estimations rather than certain figures and--as a consequence--my calculations on their changes are not supposed to be seen as 100% accurate. Of course, at this final stage (that is, the write-up) there is also an additional rounding of the percentage changes.

Also, because of the way I collate the data it does mean that full sales of holdings will likely be missed. If you notice any, give me a heads up in the comments section below. For example, this month the Essentra position appears to have been sold out of.

Finally, remember this is an open-ended fund and so has cash flowing in and out of it constantly. As a result, for those companies Woodford particularly favours--if he wishes to keep them at a similar weighting--then each month would show a growth in his shareholding in them. what this means for the true nature of the purchase (confidence, consistency, or whatever) is up to you!

As usual, Do Your Own Research (DYOR)!

What do you think?

What do you think of some of Woodford's big movers? Did you make similar purchases/sells in September? Has the list got you thinking about any of the companies listed?

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[Image reproduced from Woodford Investment Management]