Major Changes to Berkshire Hathaway’s Portfolio in Third Quarter 2015

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, BRK.B) released its SEC 13F filing for the third quarter ending September 30, 2015 prior to the market opening today.  There were several major changes from the second quarter that were not previously reported.

The following stakes were increased:

(1) $340 million in Charter Communications  (CHTR)  (Ted Weschler or Todd Combs)

(2) $330 million in Liberty Media (LMCK)  (Ted Weschler)

(3) $300 million in General Motors (GM)  (Ted Weschler)

(4) $230 million in Suncor Energy (SU) (Ted Weschler)

(5) $200 million in IBM (IBM) (Warren Buffett)

There was a decrease in the following:

(1) $300 million in Goldman Sachs (GS) (Warren Buffett)

(2) $250 million in Wal-Mart (WMT) (Warren Buffett)

(3) $250 million in Viacom (VIAB) (Todd Combs) (Stake eliminated)

There were also smaller increases in Axalta (AXTA), Liberty Media Cl. A (LMCA), Liberty Global (LBTYA, LBTYK), and Twenty First Century Fox (FOXA).

Smaller decreases occurred in Bank of New York Mellon (BK), Chicago Bridge & Iron (CBI), Deere (DE),  Media General (MEG), and Wabco (WBC).

In addition, during the third quarter Berkshire acquired a $2 billion stake in AT&T (T) resulting from its acquisition of DirecTV (DTV), and a $23 billion position in Kraft Heinz (KHC) resulting from the Heinz acquisition of Kraft with 3G Capital.  (KHC is now Berkshire ‘s second largest stock holding behind only Wells Fargo (WFC), which is currently valued at $26 billion.)

I am quoted in a Bloomberg article on this topic:

“I’m surprised he had to sell anything to fund the Precision Castparts purchase, with over $60 billion of cash on his balance sheet,” David Kass, a professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business who has taken students to meet Buffett in Omaha, Nebraska, wrote in an e-mail.”