Berkshire Reduces Stakes in Banks and Invests in Barrick Gold in 2020 Q2
Berkshire revealed numerous changes to its common stock portfolio during the second quarter in its SEC 13F filing after the market closed today. This appeared to be the greatest portfolio activity in decades resulting from the pandemic. The largest dollar changes (excluding previously reported airline sales) based on prices as of June 30, 2020 were:
New Position
Barrick Gold (GOLD) +$564 million
Additions to Positions
Liberty SiriusXM Series C (LSXMK) +$425 million
STORE Capital (STOR) +$138 million
Kroger (KR) +$100 million
Suncor Energy (SU) +$72 million
Positions Eliminated
Restaurant Brands International (QSR) -$459 million
Goldman Sachs (GS) -$373 million
Occidental Petroleum (OXY) -$345 million
Positions Reduced
JP Morgan Chase (JPM) -$3.3 billion
Wells Fargo (WFC) -$2.2 billion
Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI) -$495 million
PNC Financial (PNC) -$400 million
Bank of New York Mellon (BK) -$290 million
Note: I was quoted in a Bloomberg article:
The second-quarter stock moves are consistent with Buffett’s “extremely cautious” outlook expressed at this year’s shareholders meeting, David Kass, a professor of finance at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, said in an interview. “He’s showing extreme caution by basically lightening up on his major banking investments except for Bank of America.”
Kass called the Barrick investment “the biggest shock” from Friday’s filing, and suggested that the size means it could be a stake made by Combs or Weschler.
“Still, you would think they would share Warren Buffett’s skeptical philosophy of investing in gold, which he’s expressed at several annual meetings as well as his letters to shareholders,” Kass said. “Yet this suddenly shows up in his portfolio, almost as a hedge against possible bad times.”
