Major Changes to Berkshire Hathaway’s Portfolio During First Quarter of 2016
In an SEC Form 13F filing on May 16, 2016, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A)(NYSE:BRK.B) reported its common stock portfolio as of March 31, 2016. There were two major changes that had not previously been reported:
(1) An initial investment in Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) of 9.8 million shares that were valued at $1.1 billion on March 31. This investment was made by Todd Combs or Ted Weschler.
(2) The sale of its entire investment in AT&T (NYSE: T) of 46.6 million shares that were valued at $1.6 billion on December 31, 2015. This investment resulted from AT&T’s acquisition of DirecTV (NASDAQ:DTV), which was an earlier investment by Todd Combs and Ted Weschler.
Other smaller changes to Berkshire’s portfolio were:
- Additional positions in Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK), Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR), Deere & Co. (NYSE:DE), International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM), Liberty Media (NASDAQ:LMCA)(NASDAQ:LMCK), Liberty Global (NASDAQ:LBTYA)(NASDAQ:LBTYK), and Visa (NYSE:V).
- Reductions in investments in Mastercard (NYSE:MA), Wabco (NYSE:WBC), and Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT).
Previously, Berkshire had disclosed its increase in its investment in Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX).
During the first quarter Berkshire acquired Precision Castparts (NYSE:PCP). It also swapped virtually all of its shares in Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) for ownership of Duracell.
(Note: I was quoted in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post on May 17, 2016 on Berkshire’s investment in Apple.)
