Ted Weschler, portfolio manager for Berkshire Hathaway.
Photograph by Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
Ted Weschler, an investment lieutenant for Warren Buffett, sold out of a hugely successful investment in Dillard’s last year that could have netted him a tenfold profit since the holding was disclosed in October 2020.
The sale was disclosed in a filing on Monday. Weschler had held 1.08 million shares of the department-store chain, a 5.9% stake. That interest was held personally, and not by Berkshire Hathaway (tickers: BRK. A and BRK. B).
Weschler could have netted $300 million or more on the holding, although it’s not clear what price he received for Dillard’s stock (DDS). The 13-G filing shows that Weschler sold the Dillard’s stake during 2021, but doesn’t indicate exactly when.
Shares of Dillards rocketed in the fourth quarter to as high as $400 from $172 . On Monday, the shares were off 1.8%, to $244.27.
Weschler declined to comment.
He and Todd Combs each run an estimated 5% of Berkshire Hathaway
‘s equity portfolio, which totaled about $325 billion at the end of the third quarter. Buffett has periodically praised them in his annual letter and annual shareholder meeting for their investment results and other contributions to Berkshire. Combs is now also chief executive of Geico, Berkshire’s big auto insurer, while managing equity investments for Berkshire.
Weschler, who ran a hedge fund before joining Berkshire in 2012, had a low profile until he was mentioned in a ProPublica article last June about how technology investor Peter Thiel had accumulated $5 billion in a tax-sheltered Roth IRA account. The article said that Weschler had accumulated $264.4 million in a Roth IRA at the end of 2018.
Weschler wrote a response to ProPublica, which he made public, noting that he converted from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA in 2012 and paid $28 million in taxes as a result. Withdrawals from Roth IRAs aren’t taxed, unlike those from traditional IRAs, proving impetus for some investors to make the conversion.
He added: “The investing success of this account has been a function of careful stock selection, exceptional luck and a multidecade time period.”
Buffett has praised both Weschler and Combs. In a CNBC interview three years ago, Buffett noted each was slightly behind the S&P 500 since joining Berkshire. Combs started in 2010.
“Overall, they are a tiny bit behind the S&P, each, by almost the same margin,” Buffett told CNBC. “They’ve done better than I have.”
Write to Andrew Bary at [email protected]
