Goldman Sachs and Microsoft are in the Purloined Portfolio
Posted: October 13, 2026
October 12, 2026 – Young athletes try to copy the batting stance of Shohei Otani or the jump shot of Steph Curry. In the same way, investors may try to emulate the stock picks of an investor they admire.
It’s not a bad idea.
Once a year, I compile a Purloined Portfolio, consisting of five stocks lifted from the portfolios of five investors I respect.
Goldman Sachs
I’ll pluck Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) from Randall Eley’s holdings. Eley runs a $1.3 billion investment portfolio at Edgar Lomax Corp. in Alexandria, Virginia.
Goldman shares are down about 22% from their peak just three months ago. I have faith that they will revive and thrive. The stock has bounced back well from past swoons: It has quintupled in the past 10 years.
Also, there’s a revolving door between the Goldman executive suite and top government offices. Three recent Treasury Secretaries — Hank Paulson, Robert Rubin and Steven Mnuchin – came from Goldman.
Jon Corzine, another Goldman alumnus, was a U.S. Senator. Mark Carney, still another, is the Prime Minister of Canada.
Memory Chips
Bernard (Bernie) Horn runs the Polaris Global Value Fund and is a highly regarded international investor. His two largest holdings are Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. of South Korea, which are part of a global oligopoly in memory chips with Micron Technology Inc. (MU) of the United States.
There’s no easy way for most U.S. investors to buy Samsung shares. Since July, SK Hynix trades as an American Depositary Receipt (symbol SKHY).
There are exchange traded funds that have a big chunk of their assets in the South Korean pair, such as iShares MSCI South Korea ETF (EWY) and Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM).
Microsoft
Matrix Asset Advisors in New York City manages about $1.4 billion. David Katz is chief investment officer. One of his largest holdings is Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), whose Azure unit holds about 20% of the U.S. cloud computing market.
About two thirds of that market is held by the big three. Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) holds about a 28% share via its AWS unit; Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) has about 15% through Google Cloud. Katz owns all three. My pick for the Purloined Portfolio is Microsoft, with its 40% net profit margin.
Transocean
Mohnish Pabrai runs the Dalal Street investment firm and, more recently, the Pabrai Wagons ETF (WAGN). One of his larger holdings is Transocean Ltd. (RIG), which is trading 45% below its 10-year high. Who needed ocean drilling when oil prices were bouncing between $55 and $70 a barrel?
But now the conflicts (plural) in the Middle East are showing the fragility of the world’s vital oil supplies, and oil is ricocheting between $90 and $110. Ocean drilling, Transocean’s specialty, may be in much higher demand in the next five years.
Berkshire Hathaway
I’ll close by bringing back a selection from last year — Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B), drawn from Scott Black’s portfolio. Black heads Delphi Management in Boston and is a member of the Barron’s Roundtable. Berkshire has lost some fans in the past year as its famed CEO Warren Buffett retired.
But there’s still a lot to recommend it. The stock sells for 13 times earnings in a market valued at a multiple of nearly 24. Debt is only 17% of the corporation’s net worth. Better still, Berkshire has $2.83 in cash for every dollar of debt.
Performance
In the past year (October 13, 2025 through October 9, 2026) my Purloined Portfolio returned 20.1%. That edged out the Standard & Poor’s 500 Total Return Index at 18.8%.
The two best performers were Mitsubishi UFG Financial Group Inc. (MUFG) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSM). Each was up about 51%. My worst performer was L3Harris Technologies Inc. (LHX), down nearly 18%.
Bear in mind that my column results are hypothetical and shouldn’t be confused with results I obtain for clients. Also, past performance doesn’t predict the future.
In 22 years, my Purloined Portfolios have averaged 13.5%, while the S&P 500 has averaged 11.9%. Eighteen of the 22 stolen-ideas lists have been profitable, and 12 have beaten the index.
My knowledge of what’s in whose portfolio comes from government filings, so it’s possible that any of the five managers might have sold the stocks I chose from their holdings.
Disclosure: I own Mitsubishi UFG Financial and Taiwan Semiconductor personally and for most of my clients. I own Berkshire Hathaway for most of my clients and Berkshire call options in a hedge fund I run.
I own Goldman Sachs and Microsoft for one or more clients, and my family owns some Microsoft shares.
John Dorfman is chairman of Dorfman Value Investments in Newton, Massachusetts. His firm of clients may own or trade securities discussed in this column. He can be reached at jdorfman@dorfmanvalue.com.