Buffett reveals stakes in two railroads
Berkshire Hathaway also takes slice of No. 1 health insurer WellPoint.
May 16 2007: 9:31 AM EDT
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. on Tuesday revealed stakes in Norfolk Southern Corp. and Union Pacific Corp. - five weeks after the billionaire said he had invested in three railroad companies but wouldn't disclose the names of two.
In filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Berkshire also disclosed a 979,700 share stake in WellPoint Inc. (Charts, Fortune 500), the largest U.S. health insurer by membership. The stake was valued at $79.5 million as of March 31, Berkshire (Charts, Fortune 500) said.
Berkshire also reported higher stakes in two other companies in the health-care space, Johnson & Johnson (Charts, Fortune 500) and France's Sanofi-Aventis.
Berkshire had on April 6 disclosed a 39.03 million share, or 11 percent, stake in railroad company Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (Charts, Fortune 500) Three days later, Buffett said Berkshire invested $700 million in a second railroad and slightly less in a third.
"What was a terrible business 30 years ago (is) a better business now," Buffett said at Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting on May 5 in Omaha, Nebraska, where it is based.
As of March 31, Berkshire said it owned 6.4 million shares of Norfolk Southern (Charts, Fortune 500) valued at $322 million, and 10.5 million shares of Union Pacific (Charts, Fortune 500) valued at $1.07 billion.
According to Tuesday's filings, Buffett began accumulating railroad stakes as early as last year's third quarter.
Shares of companies often rise when Berkshire discloses investment stakes. Regulators sometimes let Berkshire delay disclosures so investors cannot try to copy Buffett before he's finished buying.
Disclosure of the railroad stakes boosted shares of Burlington Northern, Norfolk Southern, Union Pacific and another railroad company, CSX Corp. on April 9. Burlington Northern gained the most, 6.5 percent.
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Buffett generally favors companies with stable, easy-to-understand businesses that are industry leaders and whose shares appear undervalued.
Also Tuesday, Berkshire disclosed lowered stakes in Ameriprise Financial Inc., Anheuser-Busch Cos., H&R Block Inc. and Western Union Co., and a higher stake in Wells Fargo & Co.
Berkshire owned nearly $90 billion of common stock and fixed-income securities as of March 31, according to its quarterly report.
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