Investing

Major Changes Seen in Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway Stock Holdings

Jon C. Ogg

Published: November 16, 2015 9:55 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 5:10 pm

Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) have released their official equity holdings of Berkshire Hathaway as of September 30, 2015. 24/7 Wall St. has followed this trend for many years now by tracking changes in the full list of equity holdings. We have also added details on these changes and added color on each of the pertinent holdings or added commentary on the value of those holdings through time.

Yet again, over half of Buffett’s total equity holdings are heavily concentrated in just a few top holdings. Berkshire Hathaway’s recent earnings release showed that approximately 58% of the aggregate fair value of all equity holdings was concentrated in just four companies, versus the same 58% in the prior quarter and down marginally from the 59% reported at the end of 2014.

Another issue on the recent balance sheet was that the equity securities figure in the quarterly balance sheet report was $106.1 billion. The newer 13F filing showed this value as being $127.407 billion, largely due to Kraft-Heinz. Many other stakes were changed to make room for the larger stake there, which makes the number of Berkshire Hathaway stock portfolio changes seem much higher than normal.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-B) listed its top four equity holdings as follows: credit card giant American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) at $11.2 billion, banking giant Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) at $25.2 billion, IT-services giant International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) at $11.7 billion and beverage giant Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) at $16.0 billion.

The prior 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. We now know that this pertained to Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX).

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 that 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.

American Express Co. (NYSE: AXP) has remained the same 151.6 million shares for years now. 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.

Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) was the same number of about 400 million shares that it has been at for years, and Buffett started buying Coca-Cola in the 1980s — so long ago that his cost basis must be nearing zero, if you include the dividends.

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) was a larger stake yet again, with Buffett buying more shares on IBM’s stock weakness. The stake in IBM is now 81.03 million shares, versus about 79.5 million shares at the end of June. 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.

Wells Fargo & Co. (NYSE: WFC) was the same 470.29 million share stake at the end of September as it was at the end of June and of March. Buffett has stalled in aggressive buying in Wells Fargo of late, but the share count has grown massively through time. There is also the notion that Berkshire’s stake is about 9.1% of the entire float. Buffett may be at the point that it is harder to grow that stake without more regulatory and more governance issues.

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AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is listed as a new stake for Berkshire Hathaway, with some 59.32 million shares. This may be new technically, but the reality is that this was tied to the prior DirecTV stake, and AT&T has completed that merger.

Kraft Heinz Co. (NYSE: KHC) was listed as a massive 325,634,818 shares, worth almost $23 billion at the end of September. This was already known to be a much larger stake after having seen the Kraft-Heinz deal close. That stake was listed as being over $23.5 billion all-in on Kraft-Heinz, as of the previously released September 30 balance sheet. Keep in mind that this was listed outside of being in the grouped equities amount previously of $106.1 billion. See more on Kraft Heinz below.

Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) was a total of 61.486 million shares. This stake had been classified as an elimination one quarter ago, but that was really because Buffett got the stake classified confidential. The June 30 stake was really about 29.7 million shares for a 5.57% stake, but that was indicated to be even higher in more recent data we had seen.

Precision Castparts Corp. (NYSE: PCP) is also now an immaterial stake as Berkshire Hathaway has made a formal acquisition offer after having raised its stake to 4.2 million shares in March from 2.853 million shares at the end of 2014 (and versus 2.08 million shares previously). That was listed as the same stake, but in reality this is soon to be a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway.

The full list of additional Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway stock holdings as of September 30, 2015 is as follows, with changes noted:

Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. (NYSE: AXTA) was listed as a larger stake of 23,199,474 shares, and that was after being a new position of 20 million shares.

Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (NYSE: BK) was the same stake of 20.68 million shares. This had drifted lower prior to the second quarter. Prior quarters were 22.012 million shares and 23.377 million shares, respectively. 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 previously had been raised to 6.198 million shares from 4.95 million shares previously. Also, Charter was a new stake in 2014.

Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. (NYSE: CBI) was a smaller stake yet again at 1.983 million shares. This was at 9.33 million shares in June, versus the 10.701 million shares March. 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 in September versus June. 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 a slightly smaller stake of 17.052 million shares, barely lower than the 17.31 million shares that had been there in June and 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.

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General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) was a raised stake of 50 million shares at the end of September. This stake was 41 million shares previously, but that is after having previously been raised.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (NYSE: GS) was a lower stake at 10.959 million shares at the end of September, after having been the same stake of 12.631 million shares.

Graham Holdings Co. (NYSE: GHC) 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 Heinz was noted previously in its quarterly balance sheet filing:

Berkshire’s initial investments consisted of 425 million shares of Heinz Holding common stock, warrants, which were exercised in June 2015, to acquire approximately 46 million additional shares of common stock at one cent per share, and cumulative compounding preferred stock with a liquidation preference of $8 billion. The aggregate cost of these investments was $12.25 billion. 3G also acquired 425 million shares of Heinz Holding common stock for $4.25 billion. In addition, Heinz Holding reserved 39.6 million shares of common stock for issuance to its management and directors under equity grants, including stock options.

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

Liberty Media Corp. (NASDAQ: LMCA) appears to be a larger stake. It was listed as 7.8 million class A shares, versus a prior stake of 4 million shares, and the class C shares were larger also at 15.38 million shares.

Liberty Global PLC (NASDAQ: LBTYA) also appears to be a larger stake at 12.474 million class A shares and 7.714 million class C shares at the end of September. This was previously listed as 10.34 million shares of class A and 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.

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MasterCard Inc. (NYSE: MA) was the same size stake of 5,229,756 shares.

Media General Inc. (NYSE: MEG) was a lower stake at 3.471 million shares at the end of September, down from what had been a static 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 years past.

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

Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) has remained officially the same at 52.8 million shares in the formal 13F report. This is something we expected to be part of the Duracell swap, and P&G also had been lowered in 2012 after a peak of 96.3 million shares.

Restaurant Brands International Inc. (NYSE: QSR) was the same stake at 8.438 million shares at the end of September, after having been a new stake in late 2014. The reality is that this is much larger. The most recent balance sheet data said the following:

On December 12, 2014, we acquired Class A 9% Cumulative Compounding Perpetual Preferred Shares of RBI having a stated value of $3 billion and common stock of RBI for an aggregate cost of $3 billion. RBI, domiciled in Canada, is the ultimate parent company of Burger King and Tim Hortons. As of the acquisition date, our combined investment in RBI possessed approximately 14.4% of the voting interests of RBI. The RBI Preferred is entitled to dividends on a cumulative basis of 9% per annum plus an additional amount that is intended to produce an after-tax yield to Berkshire as if the dividends were paid by a U.S.-based company.

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

Suncor Energy Inc. (NYSE: SU) appears to be a larger stake of 30 million shares in September, but this was previously static at 22.35 million shares. Suncor’s stake had increased in late 2014 and it had grown each quarter from the 13 million shares in March of 2014.

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

Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. (NASDAQ: FOXA) was a larger stake of 8.951 million shares. In June it was same stake at 6.228 million shares, but that was a larger stake than the 4.747 million shares at the end of 2014.

U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB) was the same position of 85.06 million shares at the end of September, but that was raised in June from 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 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 previously had 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 three quarters ago.

Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA) was eliminated as a stake by the end of September. The trend had been lower at 5.65 million shares in June, versus 8.265 million shares in March and 8.634 million shares at the end of 2014. The Viacom stake previously had 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 3.559 million shares at the end of September. This was previously 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 a lower stake of 56.185 million shares at the end of September. That is versus 60.385 million shares at the end of June, but this Wal-Mart stake had been raised prior to this year.

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As a reminder, Buffett told CNBC that his sales in Goldman Sachs and Wal-Mart were tied to raising cash for the pending Precision Castparts acquisition. There also had been concern over the quarter about a drop in rail traffic hurting Berkshire Hathaway. Additional Berkshire and Buffett takes from recent weeks was as follows:

• Buffett gets into cybersecurity.
• Did Buffett save Moynihan’s chairman role at Bank of America?
• In September, Buffett clarified how he took larger stakes in IBM and Phillips 66.
• What Precision Castparts will really add to Berkshire Hathaway.
• Buffett gifted another $2.8 billion in stock to charity.