What is the meaning of cloning?
As per the definition of Wikipedia
Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with either identical or virtually identical DNA, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction. In the field of biotechnology, cloning is the process of creating cloned organisms (copies) of cells and of DNA fragments
The above-given statement is the meaning of cloning as per scientific terms. But do you know that the same concept can be used in equity investment also. Those who practice cloning in equity investment is called “Cloning Investors”. So what is meant by “Cloning Investors”?
Even though I am sure that the concept which I am going to tell here is something that many might be following for a long time now, still, I think, it is Mr. Mohnish Pabrai who marketed this concept and made it accepted among the public as a serious investment strategy that anyone can follow.
So let us understand what Mr. Pabrai tells about Clone Investing during the 2013 Indian School of Business Presentation
Couple of professors in the US, I think one guy is at the University of Nevada and other guys at Ohio State and they wrote a paper where they looked at every stock Warren Buffett bought for 30 years from 1975 to 2005 and what they did is, they they did an analysis. They said that, if you bought what Buffett bought and you bought it after it was publicly known that he has bought it and you bought it on the last day of the month that was publicly known that he had bought it and you bought it at the high price of the last day of the month. Then you held it till Buffett started selling the stock and was known publicly and you sold it on the last day of the month that it was public and the price you got when you sold was the lowest price on that last day of the month and you did this for every stock that he bought and sold for 30 years. If you did that you beat the index the S&P 500 by 11.5% a year on average. The S&P had done about 10% historically, so you were doing about 21.5% a year.
The only layers that I add to that is I don’t buy everything that the others are buying. I look at what they are buying and then I look at the ones that I can understand, undervalued and I think he’s right about why buying it.
Now let us see how we can find the portfolio of great investors in the world. For that, the simple process is to follow DATAROMA. On this site, find the list under “Superinvestor Portfolio Updates”
Now under the great investors, for example, if you want to follow the portfolio of great investor Mr. Bill Gates, you need to follow the portfolio of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust.
Below mentioned is the portfolio of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust and I got it from here
| ≡ | BRK.B – Berkshire Hathaway CL B | 50.87 | 43,686,679 | Add 17.74% | $277.92 | $12,141,402,000 |
| ≡ | WM – Waste Management Inc. | 10.94 | 18,633,672 | $140.11 | $2,610,764,000 | |
| ≡ | CAT – Caterpillar Inc. | 9.26 | 10,156,756 | $217.63 | $2,210,415,000 | |
| ≡ | CNI – Canadian Natl Railway Co. | 6.15 | 13,907,283 | $105.54 | $1,467,747,000 | |
| ≡ | WMT – Walmart Inc. | 4.49 | 7,600,706 | $141.02 | $1,071,852,000 | |
| ≡ | CCI – Crown Castle International Corp. | 4.16 | 5,086,680 | $195.10 | $992,411,000 | |
| ≡ | ECL – Ecolab Inc. | 3.77 | 4,366,427 | Add 0.00% | $205.97 | $899,353,000 |
| ≡ | UPS – United Parcel Service | 2.44 | 2,801,790 | $207.97 | $582,688,000 | |
| ≡ | SDGR – SCHRODINGER Inc. | 2.21 | 6,981,664 | $75.61 | $527,884,000 | |
| ≡ | FDX – FedEx Corp. | 1.87 | 1,493,712 | $298.33 | $445,619,000 | |
| ≡ | KOF – Coca-Cola FEMSA S A CV | 1.38 | 6,214,719 | $52.93 | $328,945,000 | |
| ≡ | TV – Grupo Televisa SA | 1.01 | 16,879,104 | $14.28 | $241,034,000 | |
| ≡ | CPNG – Coupang Inc. | 1.00 | 5,714,285 | $41.82 | $238,971,000 | |
| ≡ | GOOG – Alphabet Inc. CL C | 0.23 | 21,491 | $2506.30 | $53,863,000 | |
| ≡ | GOOGL – Alphabet Inc. | 0.22 | 21,554 | $2441.77 | $52,630,000 |
That is not all you will get, if you click the BRK.B – Berkshire Hathaway CL B in the above list of portfolio,
you will find a list as given below which shows the complete list of great investors who have Berkshire Hathaway in their portfolio.
| % of portfolio | Shares | Recent activity | ||
| ≡ | Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust | 50.87 | 43,686,679 | Add 17.74% |
| ≡ | Christopher Bloomstran – Semper Augustus | 18.99 | 205,808 | Add 3.03% |
| ≡ | Guy Spier – Aquamarine Capital | 18.33 | 140,600 | |
| ≡ | Glenn Greenberg – Brave Warrior Advisors | 6.64 | 696,440 | Reduce 49.78% |
| ≡ | Torray Fund | 6.02 | 87,585 | Add 14.64% |
| ≡ | Thomas Gayner – Markel Asset Management | 5.39 | 1,531,971 | |
| ≡ | Wallace Weitz – Weitz Value | 4.81 | 165,000 | Reduce 17.50% |
| ≡ | Thomas Russo – Gardner Russo & Quinn | 4.53 | 1,931,245 | Reduce 2.69% |
| ≡ | Harry Burn – Sound Shore | 2.51 | 112,805 | Reduce 36.24% |
| ≡ | Yacktman Asset Management | 2.00 | 742,148 | Reduce 9.96% |
| ≡ | Ruane, Cunniff & Goldfarb – Sequoia Fund | 1.40 | 241,116 | Reduce 2.90% |
| ≡ | Robert Olstein – Olstein Capital Management | 1.12 | 32,000 | |
| ≡ | Bruce Berkowitz – Fairholme Capital | 1.10 | 49,960 | |
| ≡ | David Rolfe – Wedgewood Partners | 0.82 | 20,250 | |
| ≡ | Kahn Brothers Group | 0.13 | 3,250 | |
| ≡ | Chuck Akre – Akre Capital Management | 0.03 | 17,949 | |
| ≡ | Lee Ainslie – Maverick Capital | 0.02 | 8,040 | Buy |