Buffett Gets Put In Burlington Northern (BRK-A, BRK-B, BNI)

It looks like the Oracle of Omaha is riding the Reading Railroad on the Monopoly board all over again.  Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) has said in a filing that it has added to its position in Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (NYSE: BNI).  The filing notes that Buffett and company bought an additional 825,000 shares of common stock and now holds a beneficial ownership of 64,610,418 shares of common stock. 

The price paid was listed as $79.65.  We had covered an additionalincrease in his position on Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. before where he basically createdsynthetic add-on by selling put options to take advantage of the highpremiums.  It looks like he was "put" the stock here.

Buffett’s holdings as of the last date can be seen here, and we also recently gave a list of stocks which we speculated that he might add to when he issued his call to buy stocks.

Jon C. Ogg
October 30, 2008