Warren Buffett opened a stake in Barrick Gold (GOLD) in the second quarter, while exiting Goldman Sachs (GS), Burger King-parent Restaurant Brands (QSR) and Occidental Petroleum (OXY) in the pandemic-hit period. Barrick Gold stock rose late.Volume 0%
Berkshire Hathaway’s (BRKB) 13F filing also confirmed that the conglomerate fully exited four major U.S. airline stocks in Q2, including Delta Air Lines (DAL).
Berkshire bought nearly 21 million shares of gold mining giant Barrick Gold, valued at more than $563 million. Barrick Gold stock jumped 7% in late trade on the stock market today after closing down 0.6% at 26.99.
Among other notable moves, Buffett slashed stakes in JPMorgan Chase (JPM) by 61%, Wells Fargo (WFC) by 26%, and PNC Financial Services (PNC) by 41%.
It made smaller cuts to U.S. Bancorp (USB), Mastercard (MA) and Visa (V), leaving American Express (AXP) unchanged, quarterly 13F filings with the SEC late Friday showed.
The sales of those bank stocks contrast with more recent purchases of Bank of America (BAC) stock.
Early in Q3,Berkshire has steadily added BofA shares , its second biggest portfolio position. Starting July 20, the stake in the banking giant expanded to more than 1 billion shares, up from 925 million shares at the end of Q2.
No. 1 Warren Buffett Stock
In Q2, Berkshire also kept stakes in Apple (AAPL) and Amazon (AMZM) steady. Apple stock remains the No. 1 stock in Buffett’s portfolio at 44.2% of assets, as per 13F filings tracked by Whalewisdom.com.
Berkshire Hathaway is estimated to have paid an average $149.26 per Apple share, which it began accumulating in Q1 2016. Buffett revealed a stake in Amazon more a year ago, paying an average $1,792 per share.
One of Berkshire’s more notable stock purchases was revealed last week in the company’s Q2 earnings report. Buybacks of Berkshire stock totaled $5.1 billion in Q2, nearly double the prior record of $2.2 billion in Q4 2019 and a reversal from slower stock repurchases of $1.7 billion in Q1.
The buybacks of Berkshire Hathaway stock contrast with the $13 billion in stock sales Buffett made, the most in more than a decade. Earnings from the vaunted stock portfolio totaled $34.5 billion in Q2 as holdings like Apple and Amazon have been on epic runs lately.
But with the surge in stock sales, Berkshire’s cash pile climbed to a fresh record high of $146.6 billion, up from $137 billion in Q1.
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