Investing

Buffet’s Occidental Buying Passes 20%, With no Sign of Slowing

Warren Buffett
Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway confirmed a 20.2% stake in Occidental Petroleum (US:OXY).

Berkshire now controls a 28.6% stake, or 272.2 million shares, including warrants, of Occidental.

Berkshire’s stake passed 10% in March and topped 15% in May.

Here is the complete timeline of Buffett’s purchases.

There are also reports Buffett has regulatory approval to acquire up to 50% of Occidental Petroleum, although he’s not expected to take a controlling interest now.

Occidental Petroleum beat earnings and revenue expectations in late February, but the stock barely reacted to the news. However, two days later, the stock price erupted following a shareholder-friendly update. At the same time, it was revealed a few days after that Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (US:BRK.B, US:BRK.A) amassed a considerable stake in the company.

How Much Occidental Stock Will Buffett Buy?

The fact that Buffett continues accumulating the stock raises an obvious question: How much of the firm will Buffett acquire, and in time, will he buy all of Occidental Petroleum?

With Buffett, you can never rule out a complete acquisition. Not when Berkshire ended last quarter with more than $100 billion in cash and short-term investments. And he’s had a more complicated relationship with Occidental than some investors likely realize.

In 2019, Occidental outbid Chevron (US:CVX) for Anadarko, mainly thanks to facilitating a deal with Berkshire Hathaway. As part of the deal, Berkshire received 100,000 preferred shares valued at $100,000 each — or $10 billion in total — and these shares pay an annual yield of 8%. Further, Berkshire received warrants to purchase up to 80 million shares at $62.50 apiece (as mentioned in the 13G filing above).

Why is that information important? While we certainly can’t rule out Buffett & Co. further increasing their stake in Occidental, he may be comfortable with simply maintaining a stake over 20%. By doing so, Berkshire can report a proportional share of Occidental’s earnings within its own earnings report.

Further, Berkshire continues to collect its annual dividend payment of $800 million, which is no small sum even for Buffett — a lover of dividends.

Lastly, Buffett’s Berkshire owns stakes over 20% for several publicly traded firms, including Kraft Heinz (US:KHC), Davita (US:DVA), American Express (US:AXP) and Liberty Sirius XM Group Series A (US:LSXMA).

So there’s always the possibility that Buffett will keep that strategy alive and maintains an outsized position in Occidental Petroleum. At the same time, he continues accumulating a larger stake, which does not rule out a potential acquisition down the road.

This article originally appeared on Fintel

Take This Retirement Quiz To Get Matched With An Advisor Now (Sponsored)

Are you ready for retirement? Planning for retirement can be overwhelming, that’s why it could be a good idea to speak to a fiduciary financial advisor about your goals today.

Start by taking this retirement quiz right here from SmartAsset that will match you with up to 3 financial advisors that serve your area and beyond in 5 minutes. Smart Asset is now matching over 50,000 people a month.

Click here now to get started.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.