Buffett Trims Some Rail Holdings (UNP, NSC, BNI, BRK-A)

It appears Warren Buffett may have cooled a bit toward the railroad sector.  An SEC filing Monday evening showed that Bekshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK-A) trimmed a 10.5 million share stake of Union Pacific (NYSE:UNP) down to 7.411 million shares.  It also lowered its prior 6.4 million share stake in Norfolk Southern (NYSE:NSC) to 3.757 million shares.  Unfortunately there is no mention of its 17% stake in Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (NYSE:BNI).

Keep in mind that these positions have a longer lookback date.  The "as of" date here was listed as June 30, 2007, so that is quite a long lookback.  Berkshire Hathaway gets an extended filing because of its position and its confidentiality period ended in these reduced positions.

As energy costs rise, the first place you see the impact is usually in the transportation stocks. Union Pacific shares are indicated down slightly by 0.5% and Norfolk Southern shares are indicated down 1% in thin pre-market volume.

• Here’s Buffett and his stock performance on Forbes Richest list
• Maybe Warren Buffett Is The Buyer of Last Resort in Financials
• Buffet said he’d love a whale of a deal.
• Buffett nickel & diming railroads, no whale there.

Jon C. Ogg
October 16, 2007