Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway cashes in on blue-chip US stocks
Conglomerate sells off General Motors shares and trims HP and Chevron holdings
 Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway reported a record-high cash position of $157bn at the end of September © Rick Wilking/Reuters
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Eric Platt in New York
43 MINUTES AGO
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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway slashed its positions in a number of blue-chip US companies in the third quarter, as the billionaire investor converted billions of dollars from the sprawling conglomerate’s stock portfolio into cash.
The company disclosed it had sold off its remaining position in carmaker General Motors during the three months to the end of September, an investment that was worth roughly $850mn in the prior quarter.
It exited a small stake of 59,400 shares in logistics company UPS, trimmed its ownership of computer and printer maker HP by 15 per cent — with its stake falling in value by more than $1bn — and reduced its stock holdings in oil major Chevron by 10 per cent.
Berkshire also sold out of small positions in Johnson & Johnson and Procter & Gamble, stakes that were each worth about $50mn at the end of the second quarter. A Berkshire-owned asset manager that invests independently of Buffett, known as New England Asset Management, continued to hold shares of both companies at the end of September, separate filings showed.
The cuts did not stop there. Berkshire sold shares in Amazon, snack-food maker Mondelez International and insurers Markel and Globe Life. It also exited Activision Blizzard, closing out a merger arbitrage wager that the video game publisher would successfully finalise its sale to Microsoft in spite of antitrust scrutiny. That deal closed in early October.
The sales lifted Berkshire’s net divestments of publicly traded stocks to nearly $40bn over the past year, as Buffett found greater value in short-term Treasury bills now yielding more than 5 per cent. Berkshire’s cash position shot to a record $157bn at the end of September, bolstered by higher interest on its cash and Treasury portfolio, as well as strong operating earnings from the hundreds of businesses it owns.
As part of its disclosure, Berkshire noted that it had omitted at least one holding from the closely followed report, writing that it had requested confidential treatment from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Berkshire has occasionally made the request when making a significant investment. |
