Legg Mason's Bill Miller: Buys, Sells, Portfolio

Bill Miller, portfolio manager for the $20.8 billion Legg Mason Value Trust [LMVTX], recently had his remarkable 15-year winning streak against the S&P 500 broken by a sub-par 2006. But one down year is hardly enough to sully his image among value investors, who continue to closely monitor Miller's activity for buy and sell ideas.

The latest SEC Form N-Q filing for Miller's flagship fund shows what interests him in this market -- and what he's unloading (quarter ending 12/31/06; filed 3/1/07):

Recent Buys For Legg Mason Value Trust:

Amazon (AMZN): 256,000 shares (cost: $6.7 million); total position now 23.5 million shares
Centex (CTX): 597,000 shares (cost: $28.4 million); total position now 6.1 million shares

Recent Sells for Legg Mason Value Trust:

Eastman Kodak (EK): 1.7 million shares (cost: $105.9 million); loss of $67 million; remaining position 21.3 million shares
Healthnet (HNT): 16,000 shares (cost: $409,000); gain of $412,000; remaining position 9.9 million shares
IAC/InterActiveCorp (IACI): 1.4 million shares (cost: $54.1 million); loss of $3.7 million; remaining position 16.6 million shares
MGIC Investment Corporation (MTG) : 5 million shares (cost: $176.7 million); gain of 140.8 million - liquidated the fund's position
Qwest Communications (Q) : 7.5 million shares (cost: $213.8 million); loss of $151.7 million; remaining position 104 million shares
The AES Corporation (AES): 2.2 million shares (cost: $54.5 million) ; loss of $7.6 million; remaining position 49.3 million shares

Legg Mason Value Trust Portfolio As Of 12/31/06:

Name (TICKER) [% of Net Assets]

General Motors Corp. (GM) [0.1%]
Centex Corp. (CTX) [1.6%]
KB Home (KBH) [1%]
Pulte Homes Inc. (PHM) [1.7%]
Amazon (AMZN) [4.5%]
Expedia (EXPE) [1.9%]
IAC/Interactive (IACI) [3%]
Eastman Kodak (EK) [2.6%]
DirecTV (DTV) [3.2%]
Time Warner Inc. (TWX) [2.5%]
WPP Group PLC (WPP) [1%]
Sears Holdings (SHLD) [4%]
Home Depot (HD) [2.3%]
Nike Inc. (NKE) [0.9%]
Capital One Financial (COF) [1.6%]
Citigroup (C) [2.8%]
J.P. Morgan Chase (JPM) [4.4%]
American International Group (AIG) [2.3%]
Countrywide Financial (CFC) [3.5%]
Aetna (AET) [3.4%]
Health Net Inc. (HNT) [2.3%]
UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH) [4.7%]
Pfizer (PFE) [1.6%]
Masco Corp. (MAS) [0.6%]
Waste Management Inc. (WMI) [0.4%]
General Electric (GE) [1.4%]
Tyco International (TYC) [5.2%]
Cisco Systems (CSCO) [1.6%]
Dell Inc. (DELL) [1.6 %]
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) [1.7%]
IBM (IBM) [1.4%]
Seagate Technology (STX) [1.6%]
eBay Inc. (EBAY) [2.6%]
Google Inc. (GOOG) [4.4%]
Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) [3.1%]
CA Inc. (CA) [1%]
Electronic Arts Inc. (ERTS) [1.6%]
Symantec (SYMC( [0.3%]
Qwest Communications International Inc. (Q) [4.2%]
Sprint Nextel (S) [5%]
The AES Corp. (AES) [5.2%]

Comments

[RichardDommer]

"(quarter ending 12/31/06; filed 3/1/07) ... Amazon (AMZN): 256,000 shares (cost: $6.7 million); ..."

I guess I'm missing something here. If I do the math on this (i.e. $6,700,000 / 256,000) I come up with an average purchase price of $26.17/share. This is a real good trick considering that the stock was never less than $30 in the 4th quarter.

What gives?