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Buffett's Latest Buys: What Stocks Is He Adding to His Portfolio?

Warren Buffett stock price

Key Points

  • Details about Berkshire Hathaway holdings were revealed in a regulatory filing on May 15. 
  • Berkshire Hathaway's stake in Occidental Petroleum totals over $13.2 billion. Buffett's exposure to the energy sector includes a $21.6 billion holding in Chevron.
  • In the most recent quarter, Berkshire acquired $954 million in shares of Capital One Financial.
  • Berkshire sold all its shares in Taiwan Semiconductor. 
  • Interested in Berkshire Hathaway? Here are five stocks we like better.

At the most recent Berkshire Hathaway Inc. NYSE: BRK.B  investors conference in early May, Warren Buffett offered some insights into his most recent buys and sells, but more detail was released in a regulatory filing on May 15, after the market’s close.

At the conference, Buffett mentioned Occidental Petroleum Corp. NYSE: OXY, which he’s been accumulating. According to the May 15 filing, Berkshire Hathaway’s stake in the Houston-based explorer and producer totals more than $13.2 billion. Occidental’s current market capitalization is $51.89 billion.

Combined with Berkshire’s $21.6 billion holding in Chevron Co. NYSE: CVX, that’s hefty exposure to the energy sector. Since the fourth quarter of 2022, Berkshire has been unloading shares of Chevron, but it’s still among the firm’s top holdings. 

The details about recent holdings come from form 13F, a required document for institutional investment managers to list securities exceeding a certain ownership threshold. Any holdings of less than 10,000 shares and with a market value under $200,000 wouldn’t be listed on the 13F. While it’s possible that Berkshire has some of those small positions, the company tends to go big, and Buffett followers are watching for those big stakes.

Stocks Move On Buffett News

Stocks often move on news that Buffett has entered or exited a position. What’s interesting, though, is that the actual buys and sells can push the stock in either direction, but the public doesn’t know Buffett may be behind the move until regulatory filings are released.

For example, shares of home decor retailer RH NYSE: RH gapped down 8.12% on May 16, as investors realized Berkshire had unloaded its entire stake, which it began accumulating in 2019. 

The filing revealed a large new holding in Capital One Financial Corp. NYSE: COF. In the quarter ended on March 31, Berkshire acquired $954 million in shares of the online bank and credit card issuer. 

Buffett’s company also holds shares in Visa Inc. NYSE: V, Mastercard Inc. NYSE: MA and American Express Co. NYSE: AXP

When it comes to the banking industry, Buffett added to positions in Bank of America NYSE: BAC and Citigroup Inc. NYSE: C, while paring back Ally Financial Inc. NYSE: ALLY and eliminating Bank Of New York Mellon Corp. NYSE: BK and U.S. Bancorp NYSE: USB.

Paring Back BYD Stake

One company that’s gotten a lot of attention as a Berkshire holding is EV maker BYD Co. Ltd. OTCMKTS: BYDDF. In recent quarters, Buffett has been unloading BYD shares, saying that he’s shifting his focus away from China and toward Japan.  won’t appear on the 13F. Buffett reportedly owns about 108.34 million shares in the company, for a nearly 10% stake. 

However, that won’t show up on Securities and Exchange Commission filings, as Buffett purchased the BYD shares on the Hong Kong exchange. 

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. NYSE: TSM was another casualty of Buffett’s pivot away from China. The latest filing reveals Berkshire sold all its shares of the chipmaker.

Buffett isn’t known as a speculator (far from it, in fact), but he does frequently engage in trades that fall under the “merger arbitrage” category. His holding in Activision Blizzard Inc. NASDAQ: ATVI is an example. 

Buffett pared back his position in the video game producer. He now holds 49.4 million shares, a decrease from 52.7 million at the end of the prior quarter. 

Merger Arbitrage

Merger arbitrage is an investment strategy that aims to profit from price discrepancies between a target company's stock price before and after a merger or acquisition announcement. In the case of Activision, an acquisition by Microsoft Corp. NASDAQ: MSFT is pending while trade regulators review the deal. 

The acquisition price is $95 a share, but due to regulatory uncertainty, Activision Blizzard stock never reached that level, as you can see on the Activision Blizzard chart. Buffett may be losing confidence that the deal will go through, if his recent share sales are an indication. 

As of the end of the first quarter, Berkshire Hathaway’s biggest holdings are: 

Should You Invest $1,000 in Berkshire Hathaway Right Now?

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Kate Stalter
About The Author

Kate Stalter

Contributing Author

Retirement, Asset Allocation, and Tax Strategies

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Companies Mentioned in This Article

CompanyMarketRank™Current PricePrice ChangeDividend YieldP/E RatioConsensus RatingConsensus Price Target
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B)
0.9806 of 5 stars
$507.93-0.2%N/A10.26Moderate Buy$520.00
Occidental Petroleum (OXY)
4.8352 of 5 stars
$41.64-0.6%2.31%17.06Hold$53.14
Chevron (CVX)
4.6385 of 5 stars
$136.49-0.6%5.01%14.04Hold$160.24
RH (RH)
4.3942 of 5 stars
$201.08-3.1%N/A57.97Hold$275.94
Capital One Financial (COF)
4.4427 of 5 stars
$193.01-1.5%1.24%16.68Moderate Buy$207.73
Visa (V)
4.5607 of 5 stars
$363.63-0.9%0.65%36.65Moderate Buy$362.38
Mastercard (MA)
4.5599 of 5 stars
$576.29-0.8%0.53%41.49Moderate Buy$606.25
American Express (AXP)
4.4912 of 5 stars
$291.85-1.5%1.12%20.84Hold$295.05
Bank of America (BAC)
4.8162 of 5 stars
$43.92-1.7%2.37%13.64Moderate Buy$47.50
Citigroup (C)
4.9629 of 5 stars
$74.63-1.7%3.00%12.54Moderate Buy$83.97
U.S. Bancorp (USB)
4.9781 of 5 stars
$43.81-1.4%4.57%11.56Moderate Buy$50.89
Ally Financial (ALLY)
4.9274 of 5 stars
$34.78-2.5%3.45%13.37Hold$41.69
Bank of New York Mellon (BK)
4.724 of 5 stars
$89.42-0.8%2.10%15.39Moderate Buy$91.31
BYD (BYDDF)
1.3957 of 5 stars
$57.25+2.7%N/A35.34Buy$85.00
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM)
3.4138 of 5 stars
$194.43+0.5%1.11%27.61Moderate Buy$212.00
Activision Blizzard (ATVI)
0.7805 of 5 stars
$94.42flat1.05%34.59N/AN/A
Microsoft (MSFT)
4.8805 of 5 stars
$456.45-0.4%0.73%36.76Moderate Buy$510.30
Apple (AAPL)
4.7996 of 5 stars
$206.770.0%0.50%32.84Moderate Buy$235.80
Coca-Cola (KO)
4.1199 of 5 stars
$71.76+0.1%2.84%29.05Buy$75.59
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