Berkshire Portfolio Changes

A recent report provided some insight into the changes in equity holdings for Berkshire Hathaway. While important knowledge for Berkshire investors, this report has also become a market news event, given that any signal that the Oracle of Omaha is buying or selling a company you currently own could make for either a pleasant or long weekend, even though the Berkshire stock transactions may have occurred over three months ago.

As highlighted in the report, Berkshire Hathaway disclosed that it no longer has a position in Ameriprise Financial - AMP, selling 661,742 shares ($34.3 million), but has added to its positions in Kraft - KFT, buying 5.88 million shares ($182.3 million, giving 138 million total shares), increased its position in Ingersoll Rand - IR, buying 300,000 shares ($13.4 million, giving 936,000 total shares), increased its position in Burlington Northern Sante Fe - BNI, buying 2.96 million shares ($272.7 million, giving 63.8 million total shares), and decreased its position in Iron Mountain - IRM, selling 1.29 million shares ($34.2, giving 3.4 million total shares).

Other new positions include purchases of US Bankcorp - USB (1.05 million shares valued at 33.9 million), United Health Group -UNH (400,000 shares valued at $13.7 million), Wells Fargo - WFC (1.4 million shares valued at $40.6 million), and Wellpoint - WLP (300,000 shares valued at $13.2 million). Berkshire also sold a smaller stake in Trane - TT (60,500 shares valued at $2.8 million), and make smaller purchases in Carmax - KMX (300,000 shares valued at $5.8 million), M&T Bank - MTB (6,300 shares valued at $500K), and Sanofi Aventis - SNY (16,828 shares valued at $600K).