Joppen
- Warren Buffett's deputy enjoyed a $264 million retirement account as of 2018, ProPublica reported.
- Ted Weschler's best investments at his former hedge fund included Cogent and WR Grace & Co.
- Cogent stock jumped 13-fold and WR Grace stock rose 11-fold between 2003 and 2011.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Warren Buffett's deputy grew his retirement account from $70,000 to $264 million in under 30 years, ProPublica reported this month. Ted Weschler hasn't disclosed the securities responsible for that monster gain, but two of his best investments at his former hedge fund suggest they weren't household names.
Weschler, who has helped Buffett manage Berkshire Hathaway's stock portfolio since 2012, previously ran Peninsula Capital Advisors. The hedge fund first disclosed its stock holdings in 2003, and filed its last portfolio update in 2011. It held on to four of its original 13 positions during that period, and two of those were huge winners.
Peninsula held 142,000 shares of Cogent Communications worth $159,000 at the end of September 2003. The internet service provider's stock price jumped from about $1 to over $13 over the next eight years, and Peninsula increased its stake to 3.8 million shares, boosting the value of its position to $51 million by the end of the third quarter of 2011.
Weschler also won big with shares of his first employer, WR Grace & Co. Peninsula held 10.8 million shares of the specialty chemicals and materials company worth $33 million in 2003. The stock surged from $3 to north of $33 over the next eight years, lifting the value of Peninsula's untouched stake by almost 11 times to $358 million.
Peninsula's two other surviving holdings were DaVita, the dialysis specialist that Weschler later added to his Berkshire portfolio, and WSFS Financial, a financial-services company. DaVita's stock price nearly doubled in value between 2003 and 2011, while WSFS shares slumped by about 25% during that period.
Weschler's hedge fund invested in other obscure companies such as Roto-Rooter, a plumbing specialist, and Wilsons the Leather Experts, a leather-goods retailer. Moreover, Buffett's deputy has personally quadrupled his money on Dillard's, the humdrum department-store chain, over the past nine months.
The investor's $264 million nest egg might bring to mind high-flying stocks such as Amazon or Netflix, but the reality is probably far less exciting.