Warren Buffett’s Investments in Q1 2022

I am quoted by Kiplinger’s on Warren Buffett’s investments in the first quarter of 2022.

“It’s because of inflation.

When prices are rising at the fastest pace in four decades, cash is trash. That helps explain Buffett’s biggest Q1 splash, says David Kass, a professor of finance at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business and noted Buffett expert.

In addition to a number of other attractive attributes, Warren Buffett also sees an inflation hedge in Chevron, Kass says. And even if oil prices level off or reverse trend, a stake in CVX is better than sitting in cash and equivalents.

“Chevron has a large stock buyback program and pays a cash dividend of 3.5%,” Kass says. “That makes it a relatively safe cash alternative. Instead of earning essentially zero on Treasury bills, why not earn a dividend yield and a buyback yield that combined probably come in somewhere in the high single digits?”

“Chevron and Occidental, to me, they make a whole lot of sense,” Kass says. “Oil, I believe, is a good hedge against inflation.”