William Patalon III

In our Aug. 11 Private Briefing report What Does This ‘Mysterious Signal’ Tell Us About CB&I? we said we suspected that super-investor Warren Buffett would use the sell-off in Chicago Bridge & Iron NV (NYSE: CBI ) to boost his stake in the Netherlands-based infrastructure specialist.

That’s exactly what happened.

Here’s why and here’s how to profit by following the same techniques

The Contrarian Move We Called

Shares of CB&I surged nearly 4% in pre-market action last Friday after U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings showed that the Oracle of Omaha had boosted his holdings to 9.89%. The 1.15 million additional shares he purchased increased his total holding to about 10.7 million shares. (For those of you doing the math, that’s up from 9.55 million shares in March. And Buffett also raised his stake last year.)

The purchases came at a point when the stock was down about 30% year to date. But it underscores the fact that Buffett is a long-term investor who focuses on the long-term business prospects and actually gets excited when a company he likes goes on sale.

(If you really want to see this contrarian investing sentiment in action, take the time to read one of my favorite business books. Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist. by Roger Lowenstein. While most investors panic when a company’s share price falls, if the underlying business is one that Buffett really loves, he gets positively giddy and views the sell-off as a chance to load up.)

And CB&I is clearly a company that Buffett likes a lot. So it’s no surprise that he keeps adding to his stake.

You see, Chicago Bridge specializes in civil engineering mainstays such as bridges, roads, reservoirs, ports, and storage tanks. CB&I also designs and builds oil pipelines, nuclear power plants, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities.

Most of the time, nothing is more predictable than the steady earnings and revenue growth of construction and engineering companies in the energy sector. But shares of Chicago Bridge have been punished over integration concerns related to its $3 billion acquisition of the Shaw Group last year. The stock is down about 25% from where we first recommended it.

Buffett likes this company for two reasons.

First, energy infrastructure is a very good business especially for the long run. And second, energy investments have become a strategic component of Buffett’s overall investment strategy.

America’s New Declaration of Independence Is Producing Huge Gains

One of the prevailing themes here at Money Map Press is that North America is in the earliest phases of a true energy revolution one that’s going to grant the United States a new independence from foreign oil imports.

You’ve cashed in big on that theme, including peak gains of 255% on Oiltanking Partners LP (NYSE: OILT ), 251% on EnLink Midstream LLC (NYSE: ENLC ) (formerly Crosstex Energy ), 202% on American Railcar Industries Inc. (Nasdaq : ARII ), 159% on Cheniere Energy Inc. (NYSE: LNG ), and 123% on Callon Petroleum Co. (NYSE: CPE ).

Buffett obviously sees this potential himself, which is why he’s been collecting energy assets for several years now. Indeed, in our May 12 report We Know Where Warren Buffett Will Invest Next , we detailed how Buffett was creating a formal energy unit inside Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK.A. BRK.B ).

In a move that acknowledges the brand power that Berkshire has amassed in the investing arena, Buffett’s outfit changed the name of its energy arm from MidAmerican Energy to Berkshire Hathaway Energy.

Like Dr. Kent Moors, our energy expert here at Money Map Press, Buffett & Co. has recognized the big profit opportunities available in the midstream (delivery) portion of the oil-and-gas market. So you can bet that he and Berkshire Hathaway Energy and will be making additional moves to snap up properties in liquefied natural gas, pipelines, and electricity production.

One of Buffett’s existing investments is CB&I.

The Berkshire Brand Method of Building Value