Banking, finance, and taxes

How Warren Buffett's Financial Stocks Performed in Q2

Paul Ausick

Published: July 8, 2021 9:10 am

Of the 48 equities included in Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s (NYSE: BRK-B) portfolio, 10 are financial sector stocks. These 10 include banks, credit card issuers and insurance companies.

Here’s a quick look at how each performed in the second quarter. The value change is based on Buffett’s holdings as of March 31, but those could have changed over the course of the quarter. We won’t know those changes until sometime next month, when Berkshire Hathaway files its Form 13-F with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) is Buffett’s second-largest portfolio investment and was valued at $21.4 billion at the end of March. The stock’s value increased by 16.8% in the second quarter, and its value at the end of June was $25.1 billion. Buffett owns a stake of nearly 19% in American Express.

Buffett owns a 1.8% stake in Dublin-based insurer Aon PLC (NYSE: AON). The value of his stake in the company rose by 3.8% in the second quarter, from $943 million to $978 million.

Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) is Buffett’s largest holding by share count. He owns 1.03 billion shares of the stock, good for a stake of 12.1% in the bank. The shares added 6.6% in the quarter, raising their value from nearly $40.0 billion to $42.6 billion.

Shares of Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE: BK) added 8.3% to their price in the second quarter. Buffett’s 8.5% ownership stake in the bank rose from $3.52 billion to $3.81 billion.

Globe Life Inc. (NYSE: GL), another insurance company, was the only one of the financial stocks in Buffett’s portfolio to post a quarterly loss. Buffett owns 6.2% of the company’s stock, and it dropped in value by 1.4%, from almost $614 million to $605 million.

Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc. (NYSE: MMC) is another insurance company in the portfolio. Buffett owns just 1% of the company’s stock, but the shares rose by 15.5% in the second quarter and added nearly $100 million to the portfolio’s total quarterly gain of $26.8 billion in the quarter.

Credit card issuer Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA) added 2.5% to its share price during the second quarter, as well as about $41.27 million to the value of Buffett’s portfolio. Berkshire owns a stake of 0.5% in the company, and the value of that stake at the end of June was $1.67 billion.

Financial data firm Moody’s Corp. (NYSE: MCO) posted the largest second-quarter percentage gain of any of Buffett’s financial stocks, 21.4%. Berkshire owns a 13.2% stake in Moody’s, and the value of that stake rose from $7.37 billion at the end of March to $8.94 billion at the end of June.

Buffett also owns a 0.5% stake in Visa Inc. (NYSE: V). At the end of March, that stake was valued at $2.11 billion. After rising by 10.4% in the second quarter, the share is now worth $2.34 billion.

Berkshire and Buffett all but eliminated their investment in Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC). The company dropped more than 52 million shares of the bank’s stock in the first quarter and had just 675,054 left on March 31. The bank’s stock price improved by 15.9% in the second quarter, and the value of Buffett’s holding rose from $26.37 million to $30.57 million.