Buffett Broadens Portfolio
by Spending $23.9 Billion in Quarter
November 07, 2011,
8:26 PM EST
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-07/buffett-broadens-portfolio-by-spending-23-9-billion-in-quarter.html By Andrew
Frye Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Warren
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. invested $23.9 billion in the
third-quarter, the most in at least 15 years, as he accelerated
stock purchases and broadened the portfolio beyond consumer and
financial-company holdings. Berkshirebought almost $7 billion of equity
securities in the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with $3.62
billion in the second quarter and $834 million in the first, the
Omaha, Nebraska-based company said Nov. 4 in a filing.
Stockholdings labeled “commercial, industrial and other” soared 62
percent in the three months to $17.4 billion on a cost basis,
surpassing equity investments in financial and consumer-product
firms. “He sees something, and it’s
big,” said Thomas Russo, a partner at Berkshire investor Gardner
Russo & Gardner. Buffett, 81, drew down
Berkshire’s cash as Europe’s debt crisis and Standard & Poor’s
downgrade of the U.S. pushed stocks to their worst quarterly
performance since 2008. The investments disclosed Nov. 4 include
$6.9 billion of equities, $5 billion for preferred shares and
warrants in Bank of America Corp. and the acquisition of Lubrizol
Corp. for about $9 billion. Buffett is expanding a
portfolio that for more than 20 years has included equity stakes in
Coca-Cola Co., the world’s largest soft-drink maker, and Wells
Fargo & Co., now the No. 1 U.S. home lender. The chairman and
chief executive officer acquired a power company in 2000 and
railroad Burlington Northern Santa Fe last year. “Historically he has preferred
consumer products and banking to industrial companies,” said James
Armstrong, president of Berkshire shareholder Henry H. Armstrong
Associates. “But the market changes, so the names he comes up with
changes.” U.S.Downgrade The S&P 500 Index fell 14
percent in the third quarter, the most since dropping 23 percent in
the last three months of 2008. The period’s biggest one-day decline
was more than 6 percent on Aug. 8, the first trading day after
S&P stripped the U.S. government’s AAA rating. Berkshire spent
more on stocks that day than any other this year, Buffett told
Charlie Rose in an interview broadcast on PBS on Aug.
15. Berkshire’s third-quarter net income slid 24
percent to $2.28 billion as the stock market slump pressured the
value of Buffett’s equity derivative bets, the firm said in the
filing. Insurance units posted a $1.7 billion pretax underwriting
gain, while net earnings at the railroad rose 8.5 percent to $766
million. The market value of the stock portfolio advanced to $68.1
billion on Sept. 30 from $67.6 billion at the end of
June. Berkshire