Buffett's firm drops Intel, buys oil stocks

[August 15, 2012]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Warren Buffett's company has dropped its stake in Intel and added new investments in National Oilwell Varco and Phillips 66.

Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. revealed the moves in a regulatory filing after the market closed Tuesday. The report also detailed other shifts in the company's $74.3 billion stock portfolio.

In the three months ending June 30, Berkshire dropped all of its 7.7 million shares in Intel Corp. It bought 2.8 million shares in National Oilwell Varco Inc. and 27 million shares in Phillips 66.

Buffett previously mentioned the firm's purchase of stock in Phillips 66, an oil refining company spun out of ConocoPhillips, during a television interview last month.

Berkshire also sold a large chunk of its Johnson & Johnson stock. It now owns 10.3 million shares of J&J, down 64 percent from three months earlier.

In another large sale, Berkshire cut its stake in Procter & Gamble to 59 million shares, down 19 percent from the previous filing.

Buffett's firm tripled its stake in Bank of New York Mellon, from 5.6 million shares to 18.7 million. It also raised its stake in DirecTV from 23 million shares to 28 million.

Berkshire doubled its position in the newspaper publisher Lee Enterprises Inc., to 3.2 million shares. The company maintained its stakes in other publishing companies, Gannett Inc. and The Washington Post Co.

Berkshire's investments are closely watched by investors because of Buffett's successful track record. Buffett makes most of the investment decisions at Berkshire, but the firm's regulatory filing doesn't distinguish between his stock picks and those made by the company's other investment managers, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler. Combs started at Berkshire last year, and Weschler started early this year.

Buffett has said the two men are managing $2.75 billion each, while Buffett oversees the rest.

[Associated Press]

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