Warren Buffett.
Getty Images / Michael Buckner
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway added to its Apple and Chevron stakes last quarter.
The investor’s company bolstered its bets on Activision Blizzard, Paramount, and Ally Financial.
Buffett’s company dumped Verizon and Royalty Pharma out of its stock portfolio.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway topped up its stakes in Apple and Chevron last quarter, and sold the last of its Verizon shares, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing revealed on Monday.
The famed investor’s conglomerate scooped up about 3.9 million Apple shares in the period, lifting its stake in the iPhone maker to around 895 million shares or 5.6%. Berkshire continues to count Apple as by far its biggest holding; the position was valued at $122 billion at the end of June, accounting for about 41% of its $300 billion portfolio.
Buffett’s company also purchased around 2.3 million Chevron shares last quarter, raising its position to 161 million shares or about 8.2%. It more than quadrupled its stake in the oil-and-gas giant in the first quarter of this year, and has seen the value of its shares rise sharply on the back of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has disrupted global energy supplies and driven up fuel prices.
The conglomerate also raised its Activision Blizzard, Paramount, and Ally Financial bets by 6%, 14%, and 234% respectively. Meanwhile, it trimmed its wager on Kroger and General Motors, by 10% and 15% each. Notably, it disposed of its remaining stake in Verizon — a position worth over $8 billion at the end of last year — and exited Royalty Pharma after establishing that holding less than a year ago.
Berkshire — which owns scores of businesses including Geico, See’s Candies, and the BNSF Railway — published its second-quarter earnings earlier this month. The report revealed it spent a net $3.8 billion on stocks in the period, as it invested $6.2 billion in equities and sold $2.3 billion worth. While that was a fraction of the net $41 billion it shoveled into stocks in the first quarter, it signaled relative optimism given Berkshire was a net seller of stocks in both 2020 and 2021.
Buffett and his team found little worth buying during the first two years of the pandemic, as stocks surged to record highs, private equity firms and special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) bid up the price of acquisitions, and Berkshire’s rising stock price made its own shares less attractive to repurchase.
However, Berkshire has ramped up its purchases in recent months. For example, it has piled about $10 billion into Occidental Petroleum stock over the course of just 29 trading days this year.