Some of the investing world's top names disclosed their stockholdings on Monday

Four times a year, many investors who manage more than $100 million are required to disclose holdings in certain types of securities, including stocks, within 45 days of the end of a given quarter.

Most hedge-fund managers and others wait until the last possible moment to make these filings, and the disclosures to the Securities and Exchange Commission cover the quarter ending Sept. 30.

The so-called 13-F disclosures give the public a relatively fresh look inside the portfolios of major money managers such as Warren Buffett, George Soros and John Paulson. They are often the investing public's first notice that closely watched figures have reversed course on a given sector or major company.

John Paulson

Hedge-fund manager John Paulson drew down holdings in the U.S. financial-services industry, reporting no stake in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and reduced stakes in firms including Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp. and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

Mr. Paulson, who runs Paulson & Co., gave no mention in his most recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing of the 1.1 million-share Goldman stake he previously reported. The filing shows that his Citigroup holdings fell to 424 million shares from 507 million, while Bank of America holdings dropped to 138 million from 168 million and J.P. Morgan Chase to 23.7 million from 25.7 million.

-- Brendan Conway

Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. took a $52 million stake in Bank of New York Mellon Corp. in the third quarter, while reducing or eliminating positions in several other stocks.

Berkshire sold all shares of Home Depot Inc., CarMax Inc., Iron Mountain Inc., NRG Energy Inc. and trash-hauler Republic Services Inc.

Berkshire also reduced holdings of Comcast Corp., Ingersoll-Rand PLC, Nalco Holding Co., Nike Inc. and Fiserv Inc. Comcast and Nike had been in Berkshire's portfolio for several years, while Fiserv was a position Berkshire first disclosed just three months ago. All but Nike had been valued at less than $250 million at the end of the second quarter.

-- Erik Holm

George Soros

Billionaire investor George Soros's hedge fund bought more shares of blue chips AT&T Inc. and Monsanto Co. in the third quarter.

Mr. Soros, who has said that gold is the ultimate bubble, reduced his direct ownership stake in the SPDR Gold Trust, a gold-backed exchange-traded fund, by 501,300 shares to 4.7 million shares.

The fund also reported a new position in drug maker Dendreon Corp., disclosing it purchased 1.8 million shares valued at $74.8 million at the end of the third quarter.

-- Brett Philbin

David Einhorn

Greenlight Capital Inc., run by hedge-fund manager David Einhorn, in the third quarter bought 525,000 more shares in Apple Inc., and added stakes in Broadridge Financial Solutions, Ingram Micro Inc., and semiconductor solutions provider Verigy Ltd.

The filings showed Greenlight also boosted holdings in offshore drilling company Ensco PLC, home-building and mortgage-banking company NVR Inc., Symmetricom Inc. and reinsurer Transatlantic Holdings Inc.

-- Amy Or

Carl Icahn

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn reported he has taken new investments in toy maker Mattel Inc. and building-products maker Masco Corp.

Mr. Icahn, known for his activist stances and battles with boards, said in his 13-F filing that he built up a stake of 2.43 million shares in Mattel and 5.02 million shares in Masco, two bets that lean on the U.S. consumer spending money.

But at the same time, he reported no stakes as of Sept. 30 in two of his more high-profile holdings, fast-food chain Wendy's/Arby's Group Inc. and Yahoo Inc.

-- David Benoit

Bill Ackman

Activist investor Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management has exited restaurant-chain owner Yum Brands Inc. for the quarter ended Sept. 30, according to regulatory filings. Yum owns KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.

In the SEC filing, Mr. Ackman also disclosed reduced stakes in both Kraft Foods Inc. and Target Corp. in the third quarter.

Last month, Mr. Ackman, an activist investor who often takes large stakes, disclosed a 16.5% stake in J.C. Penney Co.