Who owns what?Top investors making moves in media and entertainment – Variety

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While many investors sat on the sidelines, some high-profile strategic investors made big bets on media and technology companies last year.To get a better idea of ​​where the biggest money managers like Warren Buffett have big stakes, just look at the accompanying tables that flood in every year 13 days and 13G reports.

For those outside of the corporate financial baseball world: Forty-five days from the end of the year, companies must file 13D and 13G disclosure forms with the SEC. Investors who own 5% or more of a company’s total outstanding shares require these reports (although investors who own slightly less than 5% usually also disclose). Start with this primer on how to monitor large investment bets, type Will provide a quarterly survey of how the media and entertainment industry is performing among the world’s most sophisticated stock pickers.

The importance of these annual filings (some one-time filings with the SEC during the calendar year if a very large stake is acquired) is that they provide a line chart to track the ups and downs and current status among the top security owners. , both for individual corporate giants and for the general business sector. The flow of money among institutional holders, large hedge funds and groups of high-net-worth individuals sends a strong signal of how confident people are in companies’ future performance.

Emotions are key in the investing world. Understanding who owns what and how much is also critical to understanding the reach of these beneficial owners.

Before we delve into some of the findings of the 2022 documents, we should note that you won’t see Fox’s Rupert Murdoch, Netflix boss Ted Sarandos, and Reed Hastings in these documents Names such as Disney’s Bob Iger, AMC Networks owner James Dolan, Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav, Apple CEO Tim Cook or Comcast CEO Brian Roberts. That’s because the SEC requires certain persons deemed “insiders,” ie, “officers, directors, and persons who own more than 10 percent of any class of securities of a corporation,” to report on Forms 3, 4, and 5.

But there are exceptions. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg filed 13G returns for his stake in the social media giant in 2022 and 2021, after insisting on filing Form 4s in previous years. There are also cases where both forms are filed at the same time, such as Shari Redstone and National Amusements, owner of Paramount Global.

What are the 13G and 13D forms?

The Schedule 13G and Schedule 13D filings are also called “Beneficial Ownership Reports.”

While both are used to report ownership of 5% or more of the total outstanding shares of publicly traded companies, 13G is used for passive holdings and 13D is for active holdings. Owning 5% or more of publicly traded stocks is considered a sizable investment, so the SEC requires separate reporting. Any changes to the information in the 13G file must be reported through an amendment.

The Schedule 13G document is an alternate version of the shorter Schedule 13D document. Compared with 13D, 13G has fewer reporting requirements, and filers must meet the exemption conditions listed by the SEC to file 13G in place of 13D. Both institutional investors and individuals who have no intention of influencing control can file 13G documents.

A Schedule 13G filing provides transparency about key shareholders and allows other investors to make informed investment decisions.

Looking at the 13G files of the largest media giants, certain names appear frequently, such as BlackRock and Vanguard Group. Both asset managers are large issuers of passive index funds that invest in companies on behalf of clients.

In 2022, BlackRock’s assets under management (AUM) will exceed $8.5 trillion, while Vanguard’s AUM will be around $8 trillion. Both companies regularly report numerous 13G applications from various companies.

The popularity of passive investing index funds has created concentrated corporate ownership. Even in their hands-off role, there’s no denying that the largest funds can exert enormous pressure on the vast array of companies they own.

Not surprisingly, Netflix, Microsoft, Comcast, Meta, Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Fox, Disney, Lionsgate, Roku, Paramount, AMC Networks, Warner Bros. List Vanguard and BlackRock as their target customers. 2022 13G File Manager.

Other indices that feature repeatedly as significant investors in technology and media companies include Capital Research Global Investors, Abigail P. Johnson’s Fidelity Investments and T. Rowe Price Associates.

Where things start to get interesting is the subtle variation between how much each of these indices invest in these companies each year, for example Vanguard’s share of Nexstar increases from 8.93% to 9.17% in 2022, while BlackRock has nothing in this regard shares. The TV conglomerate giant (which bought The CW last fall) has an 8.9% share in 2021.

But the real substance that can be found in these disclosures is knowing the individuals involved, such as Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway reported holding Activision Blizzard, a new investor in the gaming company that is awaiting approval. Microsoft acquisition, through 2022) and Apple at 5.8%, up from 5.1% in 2020 in his last report.

Administrative filers: 2022 and 2021

Now going back to those exceptions that we mentioned above, in these exceptions, there are some high-level personnel within the company among the 13G filers. Here you’ll see a number of CEOs, founders, chairmen, and board members listed. They must also describe the level of ownership of their respective companies and how it has changed from year to year. Below is a summary of names in boldface from the world of media and entertainment.

As macroeconomic jitters continue to mount on Wall Street, there’s sure to be a lot of stock trading in the coming months. We will continue to update the SEC website and return in late May with another report on the latest round of disclosures in the media and entertainment industry.

(Above: Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos)