Has Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett lost his investing magic?
‘The Warren Buffett Shareholder’ author Lawrence Cunningham and Smead Capital Management CEO and CIO Bill Smead respond to Berkshire Hathaway’s shareholder meeting this year that featured only Warren Buffett and his possible successor Greg Abel.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. unloaded a more than a quarter of its stake in Wells Fargo & Co. and about 61% of its position in JPMorgan Chase, while acquiring a new position in Barrick Gold Corp., according to 13-F filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for the period ended Jun 30, that were released Friday afternoon.
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Berkshire’s moves appeared to reflect a broad lightening of the conglomerates’ exposure to large-capitalization banks during the worst public health crisis in generations.
Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
---|---|---|---|---|
BRK.A | BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC. | 312,000.02 | +1,341.02 | +0.43% |
BRK.B | BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY INC. | 207.34 | +1.00 | +0.48% |
WFC | WELLS FARGO & COMPANY | 21.96 | -0.13 | -0.59% |
JPM | JP MORGAN CHASE & CO. | 100.46 | -2.92 | -2.82% |
Berkshire sold 85.6 million shares of Wells Fargo, representing about 26% of its stake and putting its ownership to about 3% from 5.3%.
The insurance conglomerate also shed 35.5 million shares of JPMorgan, 61% of its position, which now represents 1% of Berkshire’s overall portfolio from 3% in the prior period.
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Meanwhile, the investment firm acquired nearly 21 million shares of Barrick Gold worth $563 million, representing 0.3% of Berkshire’s holding. Berkshire also reduced its holding in PNC Financial Services (PNC), selling 3.85 million shares to cut its position to 0.3% from 0.5%.
Berkshire didn’t change its holdings in Apple Inc. where the firm owns 245 million shares.
Large investors must disclose long stock positions held at the end of a quarter 45 days later in a 13-F filing with the SEC, which means such filings are merely a snapshot of an investor’s holdings at a given point.
Berkshire Class A and B shares are down by about 0.6% and 0.5% at Friday’s close. Meanwhile, shares of Wells Fargo were down 0.8% in after-hours trade on Friday, JPMorgan shares edged 0.1% lower, while Barrick’s stock was up 3.9% after Friday’s closing bell.