He’s considered the world’s greatest living investor, and for good reason. Warren Buffett’s track record for making megabucks is unparalleled, so it’s no wonder that the “Oracle of Omaha” has a groupie-like following of investors who want to own the same stocks he owns via his Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKA) holding company.
Each quarter, Berkshire issues a report that lets those groupies in on what he’s done over the previous three months. That report was just issued, and it reveals a bit more trading action by the company than in past quarters. Let’s take a look at a few of the highlights from the just-released report.
First, Buffett’s company sold off entire positions in several high-profile companies in the fourth quarter, including Bank of America (NYSE:BAC), Becton Dickinson (NYSE:BDX), Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), Fiserv (NASDAQ:FISV), Lowe’s(NYSE:LOW), Nalco Holding (NYSE:NLC), and Nike (NYSE:NKE).
Berkshire also reduced its stake in Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK) — a move that comes just three months after the firm made a new investment of nearly 2 million shares in the bank. Berkshire continues holding 1.79 million BK shares.
Though Berkshire won’t comment on the changes in its portfolio, most Buffett watchers have linked the additional selling activity in Q4 to the retirement of portfolio manager Lou Simpson, who was one of the few non-Buffett surnames permitted to make stock picks for Berkshire. Buffett has said in the past that Simpson’s investments were usually between $200 million and $300 million, and perhaps not coincidentally, all of the investments eliminated in the fourth quarter fit that basic mold.
Here’s a complete list of what Berkshire Hathaway owned, as of Dec. 31:
American Express (NYSE:AXP), 151.6 million shares
Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK), 1.79 million shares
Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), 200 million shares
Comdisco (NASDAQ:CDCO), approximately 1.5 million shares
ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP), approximately 29.1 million shares
Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ:COST), 4,333,363 shares
Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM), 421,800 shares
Gannett (NYSE:GCI), 1.74 million shares
General Electric (NYSE:GE), 7.77 million shares
GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) 1.51 million shares
Ingersoll-Rand (NYSE:IR), 636,600 shares
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), approximately 42.6 million shares
Kraft Foods (NYSE:KFT), 105.21 million
M&T Bank (NYSE:MTB), 5.363 million shares
Moody’s (NYSE:MCO), approximately 28.4 million shares
Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG), 76.7 million shares
Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE:SNY), over 4 million shares
Torchmark (NYSE:TMK), approximately 2.82 million shares
US Bancorp (NYSE:USB), approximately 69 million shares
USG Corp. (NYSE:USG), approximately 17.1 million shares
United Parcel Service (NYSE:UPS), 1.429 million shares
Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT), approximately 39 million shares
Washington Post (NYSE:WPO). 1.72 million shares
Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC), 342 million shares
Wesco Financial (NYSE:WSC), 5.7 million shares
At the time of publication, Jim Woods held no positions in any of the stocks mentioned in this article.
