Teachers’ buys insurers, sells energy stocks

The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan built up positions in some insurance companies and reduced holdings in a number of energy and materials firms in the third quarter.

That’s according to its latest 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Teachers’ owned more than 3.3 million shares of MetLife, up from about 2.76 million at the end of the previous quarter. The pension fund also more than doubled its stake in Manulife to about 5.19 million shares, compared with 2.55 million three months earlier.

Meanwhile, it sold more than 830,000 shares of Exxon Mobil to hold about 1.04 million shares of the energy giant. Teachers’ also reduced its stake in Encana by 7% to 1.78 million shares and cut its interest in Cenovus by 27% to 2.08 million shares.

In the materials sector, the fund reduced its stake in Teck Resources by more than 6% to 1.34 million shares and slashed its holding in Potashcorp by 99.6% to hold just 10,895 shares.

Other notable divestments include a reduction in its interest in Oracle by 70% to 313,679 shares and the sale of all of its shares in social media gaming company Zynga.

During the quarter, Teachers’ initiated a position in BlackBerry (formerly Research In Motion) and owned nearly 2.26 million shares.
Institutional investment managers with more than US$100 million in securities traded, such as Teachers’, must file a 13F form with the SEC within 45 days of the end of a calendar quarter.

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