“Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway made a pile of stock moves last quarter, such as the new billion-dollar stakes in Chevron and Verizon as well as adding E.W. Scripps & Co and Marsh & McLennan Co, but they continue to dump the financials."
By: Allan R Kirby
Rebalancing Berkshire Hathaways' Portfolio
Additions
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B) was busy last quarter adding and dropping several stocks but the big news was the purchase of 48.5 million shares of the energy giant Chevron (CVX) worth $4.1 billion and 147 million shares of one of the biggest telecom companies in the USA Verison Communications (VZ), worth a total of $8.6 billion. Additionally, Berkshire Hathaway also added 23.07 million shares of E.W. Scripps & Co. (SSP) quarter as well.
Berkshire also disclosed a new 4,267,825 million in shares, a $499.3 million stake in the professional services company Marsh & McLennan Cos (MMC). Source
Increasing
Berkshire continued to focus on healthcare by boosting its stakes in pharmaceutical companies they first invested in back in the third quarter of 2020, which includes AbbVie (ABBV), Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), and Merck (MRK). Additionally, Berkshire grew its stake in T-Mobile (TMUS) by a surprising 117% but also increased its stake in both Kroger (KR), and RH (Restoration Hardware) but it was only a small increase in (RH). Source
Trimming
Berkshire also trimmed its stake in one of its best investments in recent years, Apple (AAPL) by about 6%, selling 57.16 million shares. But even with the trimming, Apple is still Berkshire Hathaway’s largest stock holding.
Berkshire also continued to cut its position in Wells Fargo (WFC), this time it was about 58%, selling 74.95 million shares. Source
Closed out
Berkshire is getting out of finances with them closing out on JPMorgan Chase (JPM) M&T Bank (MTB) and PNC Financial (PNC). They also closed out their positions on two recent additions Pfizer (PFE) and Barrick Gold (GOLD). Source
Millions closely watch and even mimic Berkshire Hathaways' Portfolio stock moves.
Analysis of the moves
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway continues to make changes to its portfolio, and it's becoming very clear that it's dumping the Financials in favor of other sectors such as the pharmaceutical industry. It is a bit strange that Berkshire would add then sell its entire position in Pfizer as well as Barrick Gold in such a short period in time unless they saw something they did not like or it was designed as a quick trade. Something Warren Buffett is not known for when it comes to investing.
It's also intriguing that they continue to dump financials just as the yield curve is steepening and financial stocks have been doing very well in the last few months. They once owned over 480 million shares in Wells Fargo and also held Goldman Sachs but closed out that position back in mid-2020. They still own a sizable amount in the Bank of America and it is a good bank to own.
It's always interesting to see what Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is doing with its investments and the latest filing shows they are slowly moving in a different direction by reducing their weight in the traditional financials to other sectors.
This is part of the Stocks to buy a segment of the MySmallBank.com blog written by Allan R Kirby, who writes and produces investment and personal finance articles and videos.
Disclosure: mysmallbank.com nor the author received any compensation from the mentioned securities for this article. The article is our opinion only and is written to help readers learn more about the stock mentioned in this article. Consider this as basic information only and utilize professional services and additional sources before making an investment decision.