What Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Was Buying And Selling In Q3

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) has just revealed the changes to its stock portfolio for the third quarter. The Oracle of Obama’s conglomerate has a stock portfolio worth around $101 billion and made some big changes to its holdings during the three months to the end of September.

Berkshire Hathaway: Cuts

One of the most significant changes was Berkshire’s decision to cut its holding in Goldman Sachs (GS) by 13% during the quarter. Berkshire sold 1.67 million shares in Goldman, leaving the conglomerate with just under 11 million shares of the Wall Street institution.

Berkshire also cut its holdings of Walmart (WMT) by 7% to 52.6 million shares, Deere & Co (DE) by 2% and Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI) by 78.7% to just under 2 million shares. WABCO Holdings (WBC) was reduced by 6%. Berkshire’s stake in Media General (MEG) was cut by a quarter.

One holding, Viacom, was eliminated altogether. Warren Buffett’s Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate sold its entire stake of 5.6 million shares of Viacom (VIA) during the third quarter.

Berkshire Hathaway: Additions

Berkshire made several large stock acquisitions during the third quarter; the biggest of which were already known. The Kraft Heinz (KHC) merger left Berkshire with a stake of 325 million shares in the newly merged company. Another merger, this time between AT&T (T) and DirecTV (DTV) left Berkshire with a stake of 59 million shares in AT&T worth an estimated $1.9bn.

Elsewhere, Berkshire doubled its stake in refiner Phillips 66 (PSX) from 29.7 million shares to 61.5 million shares. Berkshire also increased its stakes in John Malone’s Liberty Media Class A and Class C stock by 95% and 92% respectively.

And while the rest of the market was busy selling IBM and Suncor (SU), Berkshire was busy adding to its holdings of these two unloved companies. The group increased its stake in Suncor Energy by 34% to 30 million shares and IBM by 2% to 81 million shares.