[November 15, 2013]OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett's
company disclosed a new stake of 40 million Exxon Mobil Corp. shares
Thursday and revealed that it further cut its ConocoPhillips
investment during the third quarter.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. filed a quarterly update on its $92 billion
U.S. stock portfolio Thursday with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. The two oil company investments were the biggest
changes.
Berkshire reduced its ConocoPhillips holdings to 13.5 million shares
at the end of September, down from 24.2 million shares in June.
The quarterly filings don't differentiate between investments
Buffett himself makes and those made by other Berkshire executives.
Officials at the Omaha-based company Buffett leads as chairman and
CEO did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday,
but they don't typically comment on Berkshire's stock holdings
beyond what they are legally required to disclose.
But the size of the Exxon investment — worth $3.7 billion at
Thursday's closing price — suggests it was Buffett's decision.
Buffett has said investments smaller than $300 million are likely to
be the work of other Berkshire managers.
Berkshire invested in Exxon once before in recent years, but it
didn't hang onto that stock long after accumulating 1.3 million
shares in late 2009.
Berkshire said in filings that it began buying Exxon shares during
the second quarter as it built up 40.1 million shares by the end of
September. Thursday's filings don't indicate whether Berkshire
continued buying Exxon stock in the past six weeks.
Buffett has said he made a mistake in 2008 when he bought 84.9
million shares of ConocoPhillips stock, when oil and gas prices were
near their peak. He has said that investment cost Berkshire several
billion dollars because he didn't anticipate the dramatic fall in
energy prices that followed.
Berkshire has been gradually selling off its ConocoPhillips shares
ever since it wrote down their value.
But Buffett and Berkshire's two other investment managers — Todd
Combs and Ted Weschler — clearly see value in the oil business.
Besides ConocoPhillips and Exxon, Berkshire also holds investments
in refiner Phillips 66 and oil and gas industry supplier National
Oilwell Varco Inc. that didn't change in the quarter.
Besides the oil business moves, Berkshire made several other changes
in its stock holdings, including:
Cutting its stake in British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline PLC
to 345,819 shares from nearly 1.5 million.
Increasing its Suncor Energy Inc. investment to more than 18
million shares from 17.8 million.
Reducing its stake in French pharmaceutical group Sanofi to
3.9 million shares from 4.1 million.
Adding to its already sizeable U.S. Bancorp investment to
give Berkshire 79.1 million shares, up from 78.3 million.
Besides investments, Berkshire owns more than 80 subsidiaries in
a variety of industries, including insurance, utilities, railroads,
retail and manufacturing.
