<PAGE>
- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WEITZ SERIES FUND, INC.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Lorraine Chang
John W. Hancock
Richard D. Holland
Thomas R. Pansing, Jr.
Delmer L. Toebben
Wallace R. Weitz
OFFICERS
Wallace R. Weitz, President
Mary K. Beerling, Vice-President & Secretary
Linda L. Lawson, Vice-President
Richard F. Lawson, Vice-President
INVESTMENT ADVISER
Wallace R. Weitz & Company
DISTRIBUTOR
Weitz Securities, Inc.
CUSTODIAN
Norwest Bank Nebraska, N.A.
TRANSFER AGENT AND DIVIDEND PAYING AGENT
Wallace R. Weitz & Company
This report has been prepared for the information of shareholders of Weitz
Series Fund, Inc. -- Value Portfolio. For more detailed information about the
Fund, its investment objectives, management, fees and expenses, please see a
current prospectus. This report is not authorized for distribution to
prospective investors unless preceded or accompanied by a current prospectus.
VALUE PORTFOLIO
Q U A R T E R L Y
R E P O R T
JUNE 30, 1997
ONE PACIFIC PLACE, SUITE 600
1125 SOUTH 103 STREET
OMAHA, NEBRASKA 68124-6008
402-391-1980
800-232-4161
402-391-2125 FAX
<PAGE>
WEITZ SERIES FUND, INC. -- VALUE PORTFOLIO
PERFORMANCE SINCE INCEPTION
A long-term perspective on our portfolio's performance is shown below. The table
below shows how an investment of $25,000 in the Value Portfolio at its inception
would have grown over the years (after deducting all fees and expenses and
assuming reinvestment of all dividends). The table also sets forth average
annual total return data for the Value Portfolio for the one, five and ten year
periods ended June 30, 1997, calculated in accordance with SEC standardized
formulas.
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
VALUE OF VALUE OF VALUE OF
INITIAL CUMULATIVE CUMULATIVE TOTAL
$25,000 CAPITAL GAIN REINVESTED VALUE OF ANNUAL RATE
PERIOD ENDED INVESTMENT DISTRIBUTIONS DIVIDENDS SHARES OF RETURN
- --------------------------- ----------- ------------- ----------- --------- -----------
<S> <C> <C> <C> <C> <C>
May 9, 1986 $ 25,000 -- -- $ 25,000 --
Dec. 31, 1986 25,863 -- -- 25,863 3.5%+
Dec. 31, 1987 24,253 264 1,205 25,722 -0.5
Dec. 31, 1988 27,430 299 2,223 29,952 16.5
Dec. 31, 1989 30,763 2,103 3,701 36,567 22.1
Dec. 31, 1990 28,040 2,112 4,500 34,652 -5.2
Dec. 31, 1991 33,940 3,811 6,475 44,226 27.6
Dec. 31, 1992 36,350 6,019 7,884 50,253 13.6
Dec. 31, 1993 42,010 9,114 9,199 60,323 20.0
Dec. 31, 1994 36,075 10,414 7,899 54,388 -9.8
Dec. 31, 1995 45,955 17,447 11,855 75,257 38.4
Dec. 31, 1996 51,478 24,054 13,792 89,324 18.7
June 30, 1997 56,048 32,391 15,467 103,906 16.3++
</TABLE>
The portfolio's average annual total return for the one, five and ten year
periods ending June 30, 1997, was 25.1%, 17.6%, and 14.5%, respectively. These
returns assume redemption at the end of each period and reinvestment of
dividends.
Since inception, the total amount of capital gains distributions reinvested in
shares was $23,907, and the total amount of income distributions reinvested was
$8,913. This information represents past performance of the portfolio and is not
indicative of future performance. The investment return and the principal value
of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor's shares, when redeemed, may
be worth more or less than the original cost. Additional information is
available from Wallace R. Weitz & Co. at the address listed on the front cover.
+ Return is for the seven month period 5/9/86 through 12/31/86
++ Return is for the six month period 12/31/96 through 6/30/97
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WEITZ SERIES FUND, INC. -- VALUE PORTFOLIO
JUNE 30, 1997 - QUARTERLY REPORT
July 1, 1997
Dear Fellow Shareholder:
The second quarter of 1997 was a good one for our fund. Our total return
(income plus appreciation, after deducting expenses) was +14.1%. This brings our
gain for the first half of the year to +16.3%. Stocks in general were strong so
far this year (S&P 500 +20.6%, NASDAQ Composite +11.9%, Russell 2000 +10.2%),
and positive developments in the cable TV and cellular industries were
particularly helpful to us.
The table on page 2 shows how our fund has grown since it was started in
1986. An initial investment of $25,000 would have grown to $103,906 (after
deducting all expenses). This represents an average annual rate of return of
13.6% and a cumulative gain of 315.6%.
COMMENTARY
A highlight of the quarter was the market's renewed interest in cellular
and cable company stocks. Two cellular companies received takeover bids during
the quarter, one of which was our CommNet Cellular. Aside from causing CommNet
to rise from about $25 to over $34, the fact that rational, sophisticated buyers
were willing to pay significant premiums to market prices focused attention on
other cellular stocks which were selling far below their business values. As a
result, our other cellular stocks moved up.
In the cable arena, business continued to be strong for our companies, as
it has been for most of the past five years. However, what drew attention (and
buyers) to the cable stocks were a series of corporate events which demonstrated
the value of cable company assets:
- Microsoft invested $1 billion in Comcast stock. Microsoft wants to be in
the middle of the convergence of computers and television, and Comcast has
major interests in cable television, cable modems, cable and internet
shopping (QVC), and cable and cellular telephony. The details of their
collaboration have not been disclosed, but if Microsoft is to profit from
the venture, it will be through appreciation of Comcast stock.
- Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. dropped out of a joint venture with EchoStar
that would have created a new direct broadcast satellite (DBS) competitor
to the cable industry.
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Instead, News joined forces with PrimeStar, the cable industry's own DBS
company. This greatly strengthens PrimeStar, which is owned by several of
our cable companies, and eliminates a DBS competitor.
- Telecommunications, Inc. (TCI) has announced joint ventures with other
cable companies which will allow TCI to decrease its debt and future
capital expenditure needs and to acquire interests in some very valuable
programming properties.
- US West Media Group (UMG) continued to divest non-cable assets and
strengthen its balance sheet. Sales of its cellular and directory
businesses will leave UMG with a cable business worth roughly $30 per
share and marketable securities and other assets worth about $5 per share.
The stock moved up about 9.5% during the quarter, but still sells at just
over half of its estimated private market value.
These events were not earthshaking, but they seemed to give Wall Street
analysts (some of whom have been closet cable fans) the courage to recommend the
stocks. We have a long way to go before cable stocks are POPULAR, but this is a
start.
Most of our other companies have reported good news this year, too, but
there is no escaping the fact that there has been a very strong stock market
tailwind. I am pleased with the performance of our fund, but there is an old
Wall Street adage which reminds us not to mistake a bull market for brains.
Inflated returns have made investors feel smart and complacent. Simplistic
investment approaches have begun to seem foolproof (e.g. "if you like the
product, buy the stock" and "stocks are always the best investment, so buy 'the
market,' i.e. an index fund"). I am optimistic about our companies and their
long-term prospects, but it would not be surprising to see more sharp
corrections like the one we experienced in March-April.
INDEX FUNDS
Speaking of index funds, our portfolio was recently the beneficiary of the
current indexing craze. Countrywide Credit was added to the S&P 500 to replace a
stock that had been taken over. As a result, managers of the hundreds of
billions of dollars of index funds suddenly HAD to buy Countrywide stock. The
price did not matter. They had to own the requisite number of shares to make
their portfolios match the (new) S&P 500. As a result, the price of Countrywide
jumped from $27 to $34 1/2 in a week, a gain of 28%. The value of Countrywide's
business did not change that week, but investment professionals bought tens of
millions of dollars worth of the stock because it was put on a list.
I think this illustrates one of the risks of index fund investing. If the
stocks in an index are reasonably priced, it makes sense to buy an
efficiently-managed fund of those stocks. However, if the popularity of the
CONCEPT of indexing draws excessive amounts of capital out of non-index
4
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stocks and into a small, arbitrarily selected group of stocks, the inevitable
result will be over-valuation of the index stocks and relative under-valuation
of the others. As a value investor, I continue to try to sell the expensive
stocks and buy the bargains, even though that means going against the current
investment fashion.
1997 SHAREHOLDERS' MEETING
On June 2, about 150 clients attended our shareholders' meeting. All of
the proposals regarding directors, auditors, by-laws and investment policies
were approved. After the official business portion of the meeting, Rick Lawson,
Tom Carney, and I answered investment questions for about an hour. We also
announced that we would offer a series of informal "classes" for interested
shareholders on "mutual fund basics," "how we pick stocks," and "planning for
retirement." The initial response was good, and we have already held the first
two sessions. If you are interested in finding out more about future classes,
please call Mary Bickels.
The shareholder meeting is a good chance to get together, meet the staff
and your fellow shareholders, and talk about investments. I hope you will be
able to join us next year.
Best regards,
/s/ WALLACE WEITZ
Wallace R. Weitz
President, Portfolio
Manager
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<PAGE>
WEITZ SERIES FUND, INC. -- VALUE PORTFOLIO
SCHEDULE OF INVESTMENTS IN SECURITIES
JUNE 30, 1997
(UNAUDITED)
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
SHARES
OR UNITS COST VALUE
---------- ------------ ------------
<C> <S> <C> <C>
COMMON STOCKS -- 87.5%
BANKING -- 5.0%
175,000 Bank Plus Corp.* $ 1,765,000 $ 1,903,125
10,000 Mercantile Bancorporation 303,100 607,500
30,000 Poughkeepsie Savings Bank 157,500 219,375
77,500 R&G Financial Corp. CL B 1,379,375 2,015,000
40,000 Wells Fargo & Co. 6,278,603 10,780,000
------------ ------------
9,883,578 15,525,000
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CABLE TELEVISION -- 22.6%
271,500 Adelphia Communications Corp. CL A* 2,161,718 1,934,438
955,000 Century Communications Corp. CL A* 5,678,794 5,133,125
52,000 Comcast UK Cable Partners Limited CL A 653,976 624,000
760,000 Comcast Corp. Special CL A 12,094,598 16,245,000
135,000 TCI Satellite Entertainment CL A* 1,509,907 1,063,125
847,000 Tele-Communications, Inc. CL A* 12,188,770 12,599,125
680,000 Tele-Communications Liberty Media CL A* 11,369,036 16,150,000
50,000 Time Warner, Inc. 1,267,265 2,412,500
694,000 U.S. West Media Group* 12,642,948 14,053,500
------------ ------------
59,567,012 70,214,813
------------ ------------
CONSUMER PRODUCTS AND SERVICES -- 3.9%
135,000 American Classic Voyages Co.* 1,296,363 1,451,250
4,875 Lady Baltimore Foods, Inc. 227,781 241,313
300,000 Protection One, Inc.* 2,562,611 4,050,000
180,000 Seafield Capital Corp. 6,667,090 6,435,000
------------ ------------
10,753,845 12,177,563
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FEDERAL AGENCIES -- 4.8%
120,000 Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. 679,347 4,125,000
100,000 Federal National Mortgage Association 1,768,575 4,362,500
50,000 Student Loan Marketing Association 1,837,925 6,350,000
------------ ------------
4,285,847 14,837,500
------------ ------------
FINANCIAL SERVICES -- 6.3%
80,000 American Express Co. 2,381,346 5,960,000
110 Berkshire Hathaway, Inc.* 640,550 5,192,000
128,000 Capital One Financial Corp. 3,107,958 4,832,000
40,000 Imperial Credit Industries, Inc.* 550,000 822,500
30,000 PS Group, Inc.* 233,125 386,250
45,000 Salomon, Inc. 1,610,333 2,503,125
------------ ------------
8,523,312 19,695,875
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</TABLE>
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WEITZ SERIES FUND, INC. -- VALUE PORTFOLIO
SCHEDULE OF INVESTMENTS IN SECURITIES, CONTINUED
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
SHARES
OR UNITS COST VALUE
---------- ------------ ------------
<C> <S> <C> <C>
INFORMATION AND DATA PROCESSING -- 2.1%
142,100 BRC Holdings, Inc.* $ 3,457,554 $ 5,399,800
210,000 Intelligent Systems Corp.* 447,971 1,036,875
------------ ------------
3,905,525 6,436,675
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MORTGAGE BANKING -- 6.1%
300,000 Countrywide Credit Industries, Inc. 4,656,091 9,356,250
100,000 Long Beach Financial Corp.* 650,000 875,000
25,000 New Century Financial Corp.* 275,000 362,500
428,058 Resource Bancshares Mtg. Grp., Inc. 5,008,501 8,454,145
------------ ------------
10,589,592 19,047,895
------------ ------------
PUBLISHING AND BROADCASTING -- 5.4%
13,590 Chris-Craft Industries, Inc.* 553,493 655,718
57,200 Daily Journal Corp.* 1,254,217 1,816,100
300,000 Gabelli Global Multimedia Trust, Inc. 2,071,150 2,268,750
426,100 Katz Media Group, Inc.* 3,852,259 2,796,281
321,000 Valassis Communications, Inc.* 5,004,200 7,704,000
20,000 Walt Disney Co. 1,098,642 1,605,000
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13,833,961 16,845,849
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REAL ESTATE AND CONSTRUCTION -- 7.9%
235,000 Catellus Development Corp.* 1,450,577 4,259,375
90,000 Forest City Enterprises, Inc. CL A 2,159,453 4,303,125
540,000 NHP, Inc.* 8,494,395 12,150,000
423,000 Presley Companies CL A* 609,950 687,375
40,000 SLH Corp.* 766,000 3,080,000
------------ ------------
13,480,375 24,479,875
------------ ------------
REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUSTS -- 10.4%
98,800 First Washington Realty Trust, Inc. 1,539,529 2,470,000
185,000 NovaStar Financial, Inc.** 2,775,000 2,775,000
501,237 Redwood Trust, Inc. 10,335,468 23,432,830
175,000 Thornburg Mortgage Asset Corp. 3,174,637 3,762,500
------------ ------------
17,824,634 32,440,330
------------ ------------
TELECOMMUNICATIONS -- 13.0%
598,000 360 Communications Co.* 12,193,850 10,240,750
210,000 Airtouch Communications, Inc.* 6,033,127 5,748,750
344,000 Corecomm, Inc.* 8,645,120 5,934,000
785,000 Centennial Cellular Corp. CL A* 11,573,473 12,461,875
82,800 CommNet Cellular, Inc.* 2,204,647 2,877,300
80,000 Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. 2,966,739 3,040,000
------------ ------------
43,616,956 40,302,675
------------ ------------
Total Common Stocks 196,264,637 272,004,050
------------ ------------
</TABLE>
7
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WEITZ SERIES FUND, INC. -- VALUE PORTFOLIO
SCHEDULE OF INVESTMENTS IN SECURITIES, CONTINUED
<TABLE>
<CAPTION>
SHARES
OR UNITS COST VALUE
---------- ------------ ------------
<C> <S> <C> <C>
NON-CONVERTIBLE PREFERRED STOCKS -- 1.2%
10,000 Community Bank 13% Pfd. Series B $ 257,550 $ 277,500
30,000 Prime Retail, Inc. 10.5% Pfd. Series A 645,000 750,000
69,941 Riggs National Corp. 10.75% Pfd. Series B 1,852,839 2,002,061
34,000 River Bank America 15.0% Pfd. Series A 845,750 782,000
------------ ------------
Total Non-Convertible Preferred Stocks 3,601,139 3,811,561
------------ ------------
FACE
AMOUNT
----------
CORPORATE BONDS -- 0.5%
$ 500,000 Salomon, Inc. Notes 7.125% 8/01/99 500,000 505,174
1,000,000 Dime Savings 10.5% 11/15/05 1,049,175 1,080,000
------------ ------------
Total Corporate Bonds 1,549,175 1,585,174
------------ ------------
U.S. GOVERNMENT AND AGENCY SECURITIES -- 4.5%
750,000 U.S. Treasury Note 6.0% 5/31/98 748,633 751,289
4,750,000 Federal Natl. Mtg. Assn. 6.625% 7/12/00 4,750,690 4,761,875
2,000,000 Federal Home Loan Bank 6.55% 11/15/02 2,000,000 1,983,495
3,000,000 Federal Natl. Mtg. Assn. 7.54% 6/04/04 3,018,566 3,004,687
2,500,000 Federal Natl. Mtg. Assn. 7.55% 6/10/04 2,498,499 2,523,828
1,000,000 Federal Home Loan Bank 6.44% 11/28/05 1,001,325 983,437
------------ ------------
Total U.S. Government and Agency Securities 14,017,713 14,008,611
------------ ------------
SHORT-TERM SECURITIES -- 5.9%
12,926,488 Norwest U.S. Government Money Market Fund 12,926,488 12,926,488
500,000 Federal Farm Credit Discount Note 8/20/97 496,174 496,208
2,000,000 Federal Farm Credit Discount Note 8/25/97 1,983,378 1,982,889
3,000,000 Federal Home Loan Bank Discount Note 9/10/97 2,967,754 2,966,400
------------ ------------
Total Short-Term Securities 18,373,794 18,371,985
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Total Investments in Securities $233,806,458 309,781,381
------------ ------------
------------
Covered Call Options Written at Market Value -- (0.1%) (77,500)
Other Assets Less Liabilities -- 0.5% 1,248,448
------------
Total Net Assets -- 100% $310,952,329
------------
------------
Net Asset Value Per Share $ 22.419
------------
------------
</TABLE>
*Non-income producing
**This restricted security, exempt from registration under the Securities Act of
1933, was purchased in a private placement and, unless registered under the Act
or exempted from registration, may only be sold to qualified institutional
investors or certain accredited investors.
8
