Berkshire Hathaway Adds $745 Million to its DirecTV Stake
During the fourth quarter of 2011, Berkshire Hathaway added $745 million to its stake in DirecTV (DTV). It purchased an additional 16.1 million shares of DTV. Its total position is now 20.35 million shares, which are valued at $945 million at DTV’s closing price of $46.30 on February 15, 2012. Since Ted Weschler joined Berkshire Hathaway as a portfolio manager a few weeks ago, and DTV was one of the largest holdings in his Peninsula Capital hedge fund, it appears that this investment in late 2011 was based on his recommendation. Mr Weschler terminated his fund at the end of 2011.
Other additions to Berkshire’s portfolio in the fourth quarter included Liberty Media Corp. and DaVita Inc., both of which were prominent holdings in Mr. Weschler’s Peninsula Capital fund.
Berkshire also reported an increased investment of about $675 million in the shares of Wells Fargo, for a total stake of $11.6 billion at today’s closing price. Wells Fargo has been in Warren Buffett’s Berkshire portfolio for over 20 years.
Offsetting these additions was the sale of 8.4 million shares of Johnson & Johnson, or $545 million, representing about 23% of Berkshire’s stake in the company.
This information was derived from Berkshire’s 13F filing with the SEC after the market closed on February 14.
I was quoted in two Bloomberg News articles on this subject:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-14/berkshire-adds-directtv-liberty-media-stakes.html
