Warren Buffett's Secret Deals
Barry Copeland
20 / March / 21
Visitors: 493
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway yesterday revealed its Q4 2020 investment data in a fresh 13F. However, the “story” is not limited to this.
When Berkshire Hathaway released its Q3 2020 shareholding declaration in mid-November, it said it would take the opportunity to confidentially disclose the deal, which will not be included in the public record as Berkshire will continue to buy some shares in Q4 2020. A filing yesterday shed light on Buffett's secret purchases.
Form 13F is a quarterly report filed by institutional investors with at least $ 100 million in assets under management to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The form discloses the transactions of such market participants, which gives some idea of how smart money behaves.
What Buffett bought
- Verizon Communications (VZ) - 146.7 million shares, worth $ 8.62 billion. A large position in VZ was created in the last two quarters at prices ranging from $ 54 to $ 62. Verizon took 3.19% of Berkshire's portfolio, making it the # 6 largest steak investment.
- Chevron (CVX) - 48.5 million shares worth $ 4.1 billion; Chevron was also acquired during Q3 and Q4. priced at $ 72- $ 91 and now holds 1.52% of Berkshire's portfolio.
- Marsh & McLennan (MMC) - Buffett's favorite insurance broker. Berkshire Hathaway acquired 4.3 million shares for $ 499.3 million.
Overall, Buffett and his deputies for investments, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, have changed Berkshire's portfolio quite significantly:
The company increased its shares in the supermarket chain Kroger (KR) by 34%, as well as in pharmaceutical companies: AbbVie (ABBV) by 20%, in Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) by 11%, and in Merck & Co (MRK) by 28 %.
Not without sales
Berkshire divested itself of Pfizer (PFE), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), M&T Bank (MTB) and PNC Financial (PNC), which collectively held less than 1% of the portfolio.
Berkshire also sold all of Barrick Gold (GOLD), a previously unusual acquisition for Buffett given his decades-long criticism of gold investments.
The most significant change, however, is the 6% cut in Apple's position (AAPL), which remains Berkshire's # 1 asset. At the moment, Apple shares account for approximately 43.6% of the company's net asset value, that is, approximately 5.4% of all existing AAPL shares.
Shares of the automobile corporation General Motors (GM) also fell in the fourth quarter - from 80 million to 72.5 million shares, the telecommunications company Liberty Latin America (LILA) - from 1.4 million to 1.28 million, the Canadian energy company Suncor Energy (SU) - from 19.2 million to 13.9 million, US Bancorp (USB) - from 131.96 million to 131.1 million and Wells Fargo (WFC) - from 127.4 million to 52.4 million shares.
