Warren Buffett could be building a big stock position in the banking sector. For the second quarter in a row, his Berkshire Hathaway asked regulators to keep one or more stock purchases secret in the fourth quarter, according to a new 13F filing released last week. The news indicates that the “Oracle of Omaha” has spent two quarters buying something new. The Securities and Exchange Commission typically grants such a treatment when the disclosure of an ongoing investment strategy, by any asset manager with more than $100 million, “would impede competition and could cause increased volatility in the market place.” Due to the sheer size of Berkshire’s equity portfolio, which holds more than $360 billion worth of stocks, any bet would usually have to be in the billions in order to move the needle. It could easily take a few months to build a stake that big. So keeping a new stake confidential for the time being is beneficial for Berkshire as it keeps the volatility at bay until it’s done buying or selling. A new stock pick from the 93-year-old Buffett almost always leads some investors to follow suit, quickly moving the share price. Requesting such a confidential treatment is rare for Berkshire. The last time it kept a purchase confidential was when it bought stakes in Chevron and Verizon in 2020. Of course, the latest request forconfidential treatment could also have been the work of one of Buffett’s investing lieutenants, Todd Combs or Ted Weschler. They oversee about $15 billion each for Berkshire, and one of them introduced Buffett to Apple , which now accounts for about 45% of Berkshire’s portfolio. What could it be? For Buffett watchers eagerly awaiting the name of the new stock, here’s a clue. Berkshire’s 10Q filing from the third quarter said that the conglomerate had bought “banks, insurance, and finance” stocks for $1.2 billion. Here’s a look at what Omaha-based Berkshire already owns in this category. Berkshire’s second-biggest holding at the end of…
2024-02-18 09:30:00
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