Buffett’s company buys Apple and cuts stakes in chipmakers and banks
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Billionaire Warren Buffett’s company increased its already sizable Apple investment late last year while trimming a new investment in computer chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor and two long-standing bank holdings.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. announced several changes to its stock portfolio in documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday. Many investors are following the company’s moves closely because of Buffett’s remarkably successful investing track record over the decades.
Berkshire bought nearly 21 million more shares of the iPhone maker in the last three months of last year, giving it 915.6 million shares by the end of 2022.
Buffett has named Apple as one of the four giants driving Berkshire’s results, even though it’s just a stock investment. Berkshire’s other key drivers are companies it wholly owns: its insurance unit, which includes Geico, its energy company, which owns several large utilities, and BNSF Railroad.
During the quarter, Berkshire reduced its investments in Taiwan Semiconductor, US Bancorp and Bank of New York Mellon.
Just three months after announcing a stake of 60 million shares in the chipmaker, Berkshire reduced its investment in Taiwan Semiconductor to 8.3 million shares.
Berkshire also slashed its U.S. bancorp investment from 52.5 million shares to 6.7 million by the end of the year.
Berkshire Hathaway again reduced its investment in Bank of New York Mellon, selling more than 37 million shares during the quarter to leave just over 25 million shares in the bank.
The quarterly filings that Berkshire filed Tuesday don’t make clear which investments Buffett is responsible for and which were made by the company’s other two investment managers, but Buffett generally manages all of Berkshire’s largest investments, valued at $1 billion. dollars or more. Buffett doesn’t regularly comment on these stock reports.
Berkshire also added to one of its smaller investments that it first revealed three months ago when it acquired more than 1.2 million shares of Louisiana Pacific to gain control of nearly 10% of that building products maker.
During the quarter, Buffett further reduced Berkshire’s investment in Activision Blizzard to 52.7 million shares. He said he bought this stock to bet it’s Microsoft acquisition of the video game manufacturer finally go through.
Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate Buffett is also recycling its investments in grocers Kroger and Ally Financial.
buffets biggest investment Oil producer Occidental Petroleum was flat during the quarter from a year ago. Berkshire held 194.4 million shares of Occidental and warrants to purchase an additional 83.9 million shares at year-end.
Berkshire bought nearly 2 million more Chevron shares during the quarter to gain control of 8.7% of the oil giant.
One of the biggest changes to Berkshire’s portfolio isn’t reflected in the SEC filings as its investment in Chinese electric-car maker BYD is held on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Since August, Berkshire has 95 million sold of the 225 million BYD shares it bought back in 2008.
In addition to stocks, Berkshire owns an eclectic mix of dozens of different manufacturing, retail, and service companies.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/buffetts-firm-buys-apple-slashes-235505461.html Buffett’s company buys Apple and cuts stakes in chipmakers and banks
