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Key Changes in Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway Stock Holdings

Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) have released the official equity holdings of Berkshire Hathaway as of June 30, 2015. It has been the case for years now that 24/7 Wall St. has released the full list of holdings, and we have included color on changes in the positions or in the value of those holdings through time.

As we have seen in many announcements, over half of Buffett’s total equity holdings are heavily concentrated in just four top holdings, as follows: Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC), International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) and American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP). Approximately 58% of the aggregate fair value of equity investments was still concentrated in just four public companies, roughly the same as in March and down from 59% at the end of 2014.

Another issue which was seen in this 13F filing was that the public equities value of the portfolio was $107.18 billion, while the last earnings report showed a value of $110.776 billion. The 13F filing showed that “confidential information has been omitted from the public Form 13F report and filed separately with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,” which means that what you see here may be different in reality.

What the total public stock holdings from the full 13F-HR filing do not show is the amount of holdings held in preferred shares, nor in the big companies which have gone private. Berkshire Hathaway invested $3 billion in 2009 into preferred shares of Dow Chemical Co. (NYSE: DOW), and it invested $5 billion for Preferred shares and warrants in Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) in 2011. Buffett has a big stake worth over $11 billion in Heinz as well.

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) remained the same position of over 151 million shares. The value of this was listed as $11.8 billion as of June 30 versus $13.3 billion at the end of 2014. Buffett has held these shares so long he does not have to care about the dropping price, but American Express has suffered handily so far in 2015. Buffett’s number of American Express shares has been static for years. We issued a Bull & Bear Case for AmEx in 2015 earlier this year, with a projected 7.2% gain, but AmEx is greatly disappointing here as nothing seems to be going its way.

Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) was yet again the same number of about 400 million shares. The latest earnings report showed it being worth $15.7 billion. That compares to a March value of $16.2 billion and it was valued at $16.9 billion at the end of 2014. Buffett’s stake in Coca-Cola has remained static for years, and he started buying in the 1980s. His adjusted costs basis gets closer and closer to zero each year if you consider dividend payments without considering the effect of taxes on those dividends. Our own Bull and Bear Case for Coca-Cola in 2015 showed an expected 7.2% gain this year.

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) was listed as being the same 79.5 million shares as last quarter. 24/7 Wall St. would like to point out that Buffett just this last Monday hinted that Berkshire bought more IBM shares. That could have happened since the end of June of course, but this is yet again another quarter that Mr. Buffett hinted about buying shares and you just do not see those holdings in the filings. Maybe the “confidential” aspect explains this. The value of IBM as of June 30 was listed as being $12.9 billion, up from the $12.8 billion at the end of the first quarter. Buffett has added to the IBM stake in prior quarters. The end of 2014 position was 76.971 million IBM shares, up from 70.478 million shares in the third quarter of 2014 and 70.173 million last summer. Our Bull and Bear Case for IBM in 2015 showed an expected 7.8% gain this year.

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) was a stake of 470.3 million shares, which is identical to our tally from the March 31 quarter-end. The quarterly earnings showed a Wells Fargo share value of $27.6 billion as of June 30, better than the $26.7 billion at the end of March. Buffett has stalled in aggressive buying in Wells Fargo of late, but this has grown massively through time. There is also the notion that Berkshire’s stake is about 9.1% of the entire float, so Buffett simply may not be able to own more without more regulatory and more governance issues.

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The full list of additional Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway stock holdings as of June 30, 2015 is as follows:

Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE: AXTA) was listed as a NEW POSITION of 20 million shares, worth some $661 million at the end of June. This company’s market cap is $7.2 billion, but we had shown this in a Buffett move in private equity before.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE: BK) was the same stake of 20.68 million shares. This has drifted lower prior to the second quarter. Prior quarters were 22.012 million shares and 23.377 million shares the prior quarter. This used to be static at 24.6 million shares.

Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR) was a LARGER STAKE at 8.51 million shares, up from the slight drop to 5.979 million shares in March. This stake had previously been raised to 6.198 million shares versus 4.95 million shares previously. Also, Charter was a new stake in 2014.

Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. (NYSE: CBI) was a SMALLER STAKE at 9.33 million shares, versus the 10.701 million shares previously. That is after having been raised in 2014 and in 2013.

Costco Wholesale Corp. (NASDAQ: COST) was the same stake at 4,333,363 shares.

DaVita Inc. (NYSE: DVA) was the same stake at 38.565 million shares. Prior to March this DaVita stake had been raised on and off in prior quarters. As a reminder, Buffett has entered into a standstill agreement not to buy more than 25% of the company, after already having increased the stake in prior quarters.

Deere & Co. (NYSE: DE) was listed as 17.31 million that same as before, but had been raised previously after it had been held once and eliminated.

DirecTV (NASDAQ: DTV) is now immaterial as it has been acquired by AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T). Still, this was listed as the same stake at 31.353 million shares, after having been raised previously.

General Electric Corp. (NYSE: GE) was the same stake of 10.585 million shares, but this was raised earlier in 2014 and had been telegraphed before because of the warrants.

General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) was the same stake at 41 million shares, after having previously been raised.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) was the same stake of 12.631 million shares.

Graham Holdings Co. (NYSE: GHC) is what is just the remains of Washington Post and was the same stake at 107,575 shares.

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) was the same tiny stake of only 327,100 shares, but Buffett watchers know this is a leftover bit from a much larger stake in years past.

Kraft Foods Group Inc. (NASDAQ: KRFT) was the same small stake of only 192,666 shares, but this used to be much higher. With new ties to Kraft Heinz, and with a large Buffett involvement, this stake is now much larger and will change to The Kraft Heinz Company (NASDAQ: KHC) in the periods ahead.

Lee Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: LEE) was the same tiny stake of only 88,863 shares.

Liberty Media Corp. (NASDAQ: LMCA) was the same stake at 4 million shares, but the team still shows about 8 million shares of the Class C structure.

Liberty Global PLC (NASDAQ: LBTYA) was listed as 10.34 million shares of Class A and was 7.346 million of the Class C.

M&T Bank Corp. (NYSE: MTB) was the same position at 5.38 million shares — same as always.

MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) was 5,229,756 shares, the same position after having been down slightly from the 5.399 million shares at the end of 2014. It had been raised previously for several quarters in 2014.

Media General Inc. (NYSE: MEG) was the same position of 4.64 million shares.


Mondelez International Inc. (NASDAQ: MDLZ) is the same position again at 578,000 shares, but this remains far lower than in the past.

Moody’s Corp. (NYSE: MCO) was the same position of 24.669 million shares yet again, but this is lower than in the past.

National Oilwell Varco Inc. (NYSE: NOV) was ELIMINATED entirely after having been trimmed in the March quarter down to 1.978 million shares. This was 5.258 million shares at the end of 2014 and was 7.302 million shares last June.

NOW Inc. (NYSE: DNOW) was the same stake of 1.825 million shares.

Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) was ELIMINATED entirely. This is a surprise move since it was 7.499 million shares in March versus 6.567 million shares at the end of 2014. This stake has fluctuated but used to be above 27 million shares.

Precision Castparts Corp. (NYSE: PCP) is now immaterial as Berkshire Hathaway has made a formal acquisition. That is after Berkshire increased its stake of 4.2 million shares in March from 2.853 million shares at the end of 2014 and versus 2.08 million shares previously.

Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) has remained officially the same at 52.8 million shares in the formal 13F report, but this is part of the Duracell swap and had also previously been lowered in 2012 after a peak of 96.3 million shares. Where this stands now is technical.

Restaurant Brands International Inc. (NYSE: QSR) was the same stake at 8.438 million shares, after having been a new stake in late 2014.

Sanofi (NYSE: SNY) was the same position at 3.905 million shares.

Suncor Energy Inc. (NYSE: SU) was same stake at 22.35 million shares, but this had been increased in late 2014 and it had grown each quarter from the 13 million shares in March of 2014.

Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. (NASDAQ: FOXA) was the same stake at 6.228 million shares, but that was a larger stake than the 4.747 million shares at the end of 2014.

Torchmark Corp. (NYSE: TMK) the same stake at 6.35 million shares.

U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) was a LARGER STAKE at 85.06 million shares, versus the 83.77 million shares at the end of March. That has grown from 80.09 million shares at the end of 2014.

USG Corp. (NYSE: USG) was the same stake at just over 39 million shares, but this had been raised in prior to the end of 2014.

United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS) was the same tiny position at 59,400 shares, but this is way down from 2012.

VeriSign Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN) was the same stake at 12.985 million shares, but this one had previously grown in 2014.

Verisk Analytics Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSK) was the same position at 1,563,434 shares, but that is lower than in prior quarters.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) was the same stake at 15 million shares, but that had been raised two quarters ago.

Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA) was a SMALLER STAKE at 5.65 million shares. That was 8.265 million shares in March and 8.634 million shares at the end of 2014. The Viacom stake had previously been rising in 2014 and in 2013.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) was the same stake of 9.885 million shares. This stake had been rising throughout 2014.

WABCO Holdings Inc. (NYSE: WBC) is SLIGHTLY LOWER again at 3.78 million shares, down from 3.863 million shares and down from 4.076 million shares before then.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) was the same stake as before at 60.385 million shares, but this had been raised prior to this year.

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