Warren Buffett's company recommits to Bank of America stock while dumping other banks
Buffett increased his stake in Bank of America by 15%, bringing his total investment to $24.1 billion.
(AP) -- Warren Buffett recommitted his favorite bank, Bank of America during the first quarter, while dumping two others as part of a series of moves made in Berkshire Hathaway’s stock portfolio.
In a Monday filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Berkshire gave a quarterly report on its U.S. investments. Buffett's impressive track record of investing has led many investors to closely follow the company.
Berkshire increased its stake of 179.4 millions shares in Bank of America while reducing long-standing stakes in US Bancorp, and Bank of New York Mellon. Buffett has sold off a number of his bank investments over the past few years but continues to support Bank of America.
Berkshire has also acquired nearly 10,000,000 shares of Capital One.
Buffett is generally responsible for Berkshire’s largest investments, which are worth at least $1 billion. Buffett does not comment regularly on Berkshire's stock filings.
Berkshire has continued to reduce the Activision Blizzard shares it owns in the first quarter, from 52.7 to 49.4 millions. Buffett said that he purchased the stock to bet on Microsoft's eventual acquisition of video game maker. The deal is now in doubt, after British regulators refused it and U.S. regulatory agencies sued to stop it. However, the European Union endorsed Microsoft's acquisition on Monday.
Berkshire has also reduced its General Motors investments from 50 million to 40 million shares.
The report released on Monday does not include Berkshire's biggest investment over the last year, which was the sale of more than half its stake in Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer BYD. These sales, which generated billions of dollars for Berkshire are reported separately at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Berkshire owned approximately 108 million BYD stock worth $3.3 billion at the time of last update.
Berkshire owned 225,000,000 shares, which it purchased in 2008 for $232 millions. Buffett sold the shares in August after their value had risen to $9.5 billion.
Berkshire's other major move was to sell 35 million Chevron stock shares, leaving it with 132.4 millions shares of the oil company. However, Berkshire already reported this in its quarterly earnings report.
Buffett is still bullish on oil.
Buffett has spent billions on Occidental Petroleum shares over the last year. Berkshire purchased another 17.4 millions shares in the third quarter as previously reported. This gives Berkshire control over nearly 24% or 211.7 million of the oil company's shares. Berkshire holds warrants for another 83.9 millions Occidental shares. However, Buffett said at Berkshire’s annual meeting in early October that he does not plan to purchase the entire company.
Berkshire’s largest single investment in Apple shares has remained at 915.6 millions shares. The Omaha-based conglomerate purchased 16.5 million HP Inc. shares, giving it almost 121 million of the printer manufacturer's shares.
Berkshire sold off nearly all the remaining 8.3 million shares in chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor. Buffett purchased 60 million shares of Taiwan Semiconductor last fall. However, he said that he immediately re-evaluated that investment due to geopolitical fears about China.
Berkshire, in addition to its investments, owns dozens companies outright. These include Geico Insurance, BNSF Railroad, several large utilities, and a variety of manufacturing and retail enterprises such as Precision Castparts and See's Candy.