Bill Stiritz is no Warren Buffett — at least, not lately.
Stiritz’s savvy track record of investing, which invited comparisons to the Oracle, is losing its luster.
His two big bets — on Post Holdings, the food company he heads, and nutritional supplements maker Herbalife, where he is the fourth-largest investor — have been tanking.
Shares of Post fell 16 percent Friday after the maker of Grape-Nuts, Fruity Pebbles and Raisin Bran posted a fiscal third-quarter loss and announced another acquisition despite trouble digesting some $4 billion in deals.
Stiritz took over Post when Ralcorp spun off the cereal maker in 2012. But a string of mergers over the past year is not working out, while analysts have criticized the company for doing too many deals at once.
The 79-year-old resurfaced in the public eye last year after taking what has grown to an 8.15 percent stake in Herbalife.
He told Bloomberg he invested a third of his personal wealth in the company.
Herbalife is down 35 percent this year after posting disappointing second-quarter results. The stock has fallen 21 percent since Stiritz disclosed his 5 percent stake last August, when it hovered around $65.
In November, after buying more shares at roughly $70 a pop, Stiritz turned his passive stake into an activist one as he pressed the company to fight Bill Ackman’s $1 billion short against it.
Herbalife closed at $51.49 Friday.