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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway bet on 3 homebuilders - and sold or slashed a bunch of its stocks last quarter

Aug 15, 2023, 04:13 IST
Business Insider
Warren Buffett.REUTERS/Rick Wilking
  • Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway added a trio of homebuilders to its portfolio last quarter.
  • The investor's company exited three stocks and slashed several other positions, SEC filings show.
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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway pruned its stock portfolio last quarter, swapping out three positions and slashing several existing ones. It also added a trio of homebuilders to its holdings, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing revealed on Monday.

The famed investor's company sold its stakes in McKesson, Marsh & McLennan, and Vitesse Energy last quarter, the filing showed. It also trimmed its key Chevron stake by 7%, and reduced its bets on Activision Blizzard by 70%, Celanese by 39%, General Motors by 45%, and Globe Life by 60%.

On the other hand, Buffett's company established new positions in three residential-construction companies: Lennar, NVR, and DR Horton. Those stakes were valued at $17 million, $71 million, and $726 million respectively at the end of June.

Moreover, Berkshire boosted its stake in Capital One by 26% to 12.5 million shares, worth $1.4 billion on June 30. It established that position in the first quarter, likely after Silicon Valley Bank's dramatic collapse spooked depositors and temporarily tanked regional-bank stocks.

Berkshire also ramped up its Occidental Petroleum wager by 7% last quarter, signaling Buffett and his team are interested in growing their ownership of the oil explorer and producer beyond 25%.

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The overall worth of Berkshire's US stock portfolio jumped by 7% to $348 billion during the quarter. That largely reflected a $27 billion surge in the value of its Apple stake to about $178 billion, as the iPhone maker's stock soared during the period. Berkshire owns close to 6% of Apple and counts the technology titan as the most-valuable holding in its stock portfolio by far.

Buffett's company foreshadowed its bout of stock sales in its recent second-quarter earnings. Berkshire noted that it sold close to $13 billion worth of shares and bought less than $5 billion worth, making it a net seller of stocks in the period. Combined with a slower pace of buybacks, that helped boost Berkshire's cash pile by 13% to a near-record $147 billion.

The billionaire's recent lack of stock purchases, buybacks, and big acquisitions suggests he's struggling to find bargains one again, after a historic rally in stocks and other assets this year.

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