Buffett’s Berkshire buys more Wells Fargo, Wal-Mart, Reveals CB&I Stake
From Moneynews
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc revealed a new investment in Chicago Bridge & Iron Co and said it has added to its largest equity holding, Wells Fargo & Co.
The changes were disclosed in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing detailing Berkshire’s $85 billion of equity investments listed on U.S. exchanges as of March 31.
Earlier this month, Berkshire said it had $95.9 billion of equity securities overall, and Buffett indicated that the bulk of the company’s investments will stay in the United States.
“If you told us we could only invest in the United States for the rest of our lives, we wouldn’t regard this as a huge hardship,” Buffett said on May 4 at Berkshire’s annual meeting in its hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.
The company also owns more than 80 businesses in such areas as insurance, railroads, utilities, chemicals, apparel and food.
Berkshire said it has taken a roughly 6.51 million-share stake in CB&I, one of the largest U.S.-listed engineering companies. The stake was worth about $404.2 million as of March 31.
Shares of companies often rise after Berkshire discloses new investments, and CBI shares rose 3.4 percent to $59.75 in after-hours trading. They had closed down 14 cents at $57.76.
Berkshire also boosted its stake in Wells Fargo, the fourth-largest U.S. bank, by about 4 percent from year end to 458.2 million shares.
Those shares were worth about $16.95 billion on March 31, roughly the current market value of high-end clothing retailer Ralph Lauren Corp.
Berkshire’s top four equity holdings — Wells Fargo, American Express Co., Coca-Cola Co. and International Business Machines Corp. — were worth about $57.9 billion as of March 31, according to Wednesday’s filing.
BUFFETT, OR OTHERS?
While large Berkshire investments are made by Buffett, smaller investments are often made by portfolio managers Todd Combs or Ted Weschler.
Wednesday’s filing does not indicate who makes individual investments. Buffett, a buy-and-hold investor, has indicated that at least one of them trades more often than he does.
On May 7, Weschler signed an agreement on Berkshire’s behalf allowing the company to boost its 14.2 percent stake in DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc., the largest U.S. operator of dialysis clinics, to as much as 25 percent.
Berkshire added in the quarter to its stake in DaVita, and its stakes in several other companies including US Bancorp, retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc, satellite TV provider DirecTV and oilfield equipment provider National Oilwell Varco Inc.
It also reported a new stake in premium TV cable network Starz, which was spun off in January Liberty Media Corp., which continues to be a Berkshire holding.
It also reduced its stakes in food companies Kraft Foods Group Inc. and Mondelez International Inc., and no longer reports stakes in grain trader Archer Daniels Midland Co. and defense contractor General Dynamics Corp.
In April, Berkshire began trimming what had been a 12.7 percent stake in Moody’s Corp., the parent of credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service. It has held a double-digit percentage stake in Moody’s for more than a decade.
Shares of Berkshire set record highs during Wednesday trading but closed mixed. The Class A shares fell $327 to $168,940, and the Class B shares rose 10 cents to $112.77.
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