- Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway disclosed a new, $4 billion stake in Taiwan Semiconductor.
- Berkshire boosted its Chevron and Oxy bets, and slashed its wagers on US Bancorp and BNY Mellon.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway quietly built a $4 billion stake in Taiwan Semiconductor last quarter, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing revealed on Monday.
The famed investor's conglomerate purchased about 60 million American Depository Shares (ADS) of the Taiwanese computer-chip maker, which counts Apple among its key clients.
Buffett's company also boosted its bets on Chevron, Occidental Petroleum, Paramount Global, Celanese, and RH. On the other hand, it trimmed its wagers on Activision Blizzard, Kroger, General Motors, US Bancorp, and BNY Mellon. It also added Jefferies and Louisiana-Pacific to its holdings, and exited its position in Store Capital.
The total value of Berkshire's US stock portfolio, which excludes overseas holdings such as BYD, declined slightly to $296 billion. Apple easily remained the number-one holding, accounting for over 40% of Berkshire's portfolio in both the second and third quarters.
Berkshire — which owns dozens of businesses including Geico, See's Candies, and Precision Castparts — published its third-quarter earnings earlier this month. The report revealed it spent a net $3.7 billion on stocks in the period, and foreshadowed its enlarged Chevron stake.
While Berkshire's net stock purchases pale in comparison to the $41 billion it deployed in the first quarter, the fact it was a net buyer suggests Buffett and his team spotted some bargains in the period.
Berkshire found little worth buying in 2020 and 2021, as equities soared to record highs, private equity firms and special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) drove up the price of acquisitions, and the rising cost of Berkshire stock made it less attractive to repurchase.
However, Berkshire has ramped up its purchases this year. For example, it plowed about $10 billion into Occidental Petroleum stock in a matter of weeks. It also roughly quadrupled it stake in Chevron in the first quarter, and now counts the oil major among the five most-valuable holdings in its stock portfolio.