Berkshire Capital One bought, offloading two banks

Berkshire owned about 25 million shares of Bank of New York Mellon (BK) worth more than $1 billion, 8.9 million shares of Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) worth $700 million, nearly 7 million shares in US Bancorp (USB) worth more than $1 billion. Less than $300 million. and about 2.4 million shares of RH Furniture Chain (RH) valued at $600 million.

CEO Warren Buffett told shareholders at Berkshire’s annual meeting that he was selling bank stocks because he had grown less fond of the industry.

Berkshire also reduced its stake in Activision Blizzard (ATVI) by 3.3 million shares to 49.4 million shares, a stake worth about $3.3 billion.

Berkshire reduced its stake in General Motors (GM) by 10 million shares in the first quarter to 40 million shares, a stake now worth about $1.2 billion.

Buffett said at the annual meeting that the auto industry is “very tough” and that “I don’t think I can tell you what the auto industry will look like 5 or 10 years from now.” Berkshire’s ownership in GM is believed to have been started by either Todd Combs or Ted Wechler, who together manage about 10% of the company’s $350 billion stock portfolio.

Buffett generally does not make it clear what stock holdings he owns, which are from Combs and Wachler, and which may be in common. Buffett manages 90% of the portfolio, and as CEO he’s responsible for it all.

This is breaking news. Read a preview of Berkshire Hathaway’s 13-F filing below and check back for more updates.

Berkshire Hathaway

He was an active seller of shares in the first quarter, and the company’s quarterly filing late Monday is expected to detail what it did.

Berkshire Hathaway (Stock ticker: BRK.A, BRK.B) is likely to be a seller of financial stocks in this period, and investors will be interested to know whether the company sold or divested its holdings in US Bancorp (USB) and Bank of New York (BK). ).

Berkshire was an active seller of these two banks in 2022. It is also possible that Berkshire sold part of its investment in Citigroup (C) and reduced its stake in Activision Blizzard (ATVI).

Investors will also focus on what CEO Warren Buffett and his investment assistants Todd Combs and Ted Wechler were buying in that period. Berkshire’s stock portfolio totals about $350 billion.

A 13-F filing, which details the company’s holdings of US stocks, is due to be filed late Monday. Berkshire has already provided disclosures about some of its first-quarter movements in other filings.

Here’s what we know so far.

Berkshire’s recently released 10-Q showed that Berkshire bought $2.9 billion in shares in the first quarter and sold $13.3 billion.

That filing also listed the company’s five largest stock holdings as of March 31, showing that Berkshire sold about $6 billion of Chevron (CVX) in the period. Berkshire’s other holdings, Apple (AAPL), Coca-Cola (KO), Bank of America (BAC), and American Express (AXP) were unchanged.

Berkshire also disclosed that it bought about $1 billion from Occidental Petroleum (OXY) in the first quarter, and a filing from utility unit Berkshire Hathaway Energy indicates a sale of about $1 billion from Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD (1211. HongKong) in the period. In addition, Buffett said Berkshire has raised stakes in five Japanese trading companies, but he wasn’t specific about the timing.

On the banks, Berkshire has about $2.5 billion from Citigroup, $1 billion from Bank of New York, and $250 million from Bancorp of America at the end of 2022.

Speculation about Berkshire selling financial stocks is based on its Q10 disclosure that its cost basis in the financial statements fell nearly $2 billion in the first quarter. Its holdings of industrial stocks were down $8 billion on a cost basis, most of that likely driven by the Chevron sale.

Write to Andrew Bary at [email protected]