ACCESS REALMONEY
Stephen Schurr
Despite Filing, Legg Mason Still Loves Amazon
08/18/03 - 12:20 PM EDT
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For anyone who tracks these things, Legg Mason did not just unload 33 million shares of Amazon.com AMZN. The mutual-fund firm's latest 13F-HR filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission differed substantially from its May 15 filing. Most notably, the 32.6 million shares held by Legg Mason Funds Management was gone from the list of holdings. After the 13F-HR filing, the Nasdaq's Web site listing institutional holders of Amazon.com duly noted that Legg Mason sold 33.2 million shares, or 62% of the firm's stake, of Amazon.com. According to the 13F-HR filing and the Nasdaq's site, Legg Mason now held 20.3 million shares, or roughly 5% of Amazon's shares outstanding. Did this mean that Legg Mason -- the shop that houses Value Trust skipper and S&P 500-beater Bill Miller -- turned cold on its biggest holding, Amazon.com? No. Repeat: no. According to Neal O'Callahan in Legg Mason's legal/compliance department, the 13F-HR filing issued Thursday was erroneous. Due to an error in picking up the CUSIP numbers on certain stocks, the latest report mistakenly left Legg Mason Funds Management's stake off the filing. The firm will issue an amended 13F-HR filing sometime today, O'Callahan said. As a matter of fact, the new filing will show Legg Mason Funds Management's stake in Amazon.com now stands at 34.2 million shares, up from 32.6 million at the end of the first quarter. The total number of shares owned by Legg Mason wasn't immediately available, but it is likely to be close to the 53 million the firm owned at the end of March. Everyone who owns Amazon.com can exhale. Amazon short-sellers, better luck with the next 13F-HR filing.
For the Record
Legg Mason, and Miller specifically, have been prominent champions of the online retailer from back in the late-1990s. Amazon's stock finished trading Friday at $40.10. The shares have more than tripled since closing at $12.49 on July 25, 2002, during the deep recesses of the bear market. They were in the low 20s in early March.Yahoo! is among the most searched stocks on TheStreet.com. Here's what Cramer had to say about the stock recently.
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