Berkshire Hathaway Increases Stake in Phillips 66 by $832 Million

In SEC Form 4 filings, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) (NYSE: BRK.B) has disclosed that on each of the first nine trading days of 2016, through January 14, and on each of the last three trading days through January 29, it has added to its stake in Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) at prices of $75 – $80 per share.  Berkshire has accounted for an average of 25 percent of the volume of PSX shares on four of those days.  This additional investment of approximately $825 million ($634 million in early January and $198 million in late January) has resulted in Berkshire owning 72.3 million shares of Phillips 66, or 13.7 percent of its outstanding shares.  Berkshire’s stake in Phillips 66, at its closing price of $80.15 on January 29, is valued at $5.8 billion and is its sixth largest stock holding.

Since it holds over 10 percent of the shares of Phillips 66, Berkshire is required to report changes to its position on SEC Form 4.  Berkshire first revealed owning over 10 percent of Phillips 66 stock in August, 2015.  This month’s purchases are the first Berkshire has made since September.  It is likely that this additional investment in Phillips 66 was made by Warren Buffett’s portfolio managers, Todd Combs and/or Ted Weschler.