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Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, loves the homebuilding industry.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Berkshire Hathaway
He took new positions in the field of housing construction, in particular the leader in this field
Dr. Horton
And
while reducing its share
general motors
and eliminate sticking
Makison
And
according to 13-F regulatory filing was issued late Monday.
During the second quarter, Berkshire also added to its share of
Capital One Financial
And downplayed its location in
Celanese
.
Berkshire Hathaway (ticker: BRK/A, BRK/B) has reduced its stake in General Motors (GM) by 45% to 22 million shares now worth about $750 million. That holding, dating back nearly a decade, hasn’t been particularly profitable for Berkshire given its cost of about $30 a share. GM is currently trading for about $34 a share.
The GM investment is believed to have been made by one of Warren Buffett’s investment assistants, Todd Weschler and Todd Combs, rather than Buffett, who oversees about 90% of Berkshire’s roughly $350 billion stock portfolio. Buffett doesn’t like the highly competitive auto industry.
Buffett loves the homebuilding industry, and Berkshire has acquired about 6 million shares in DR Horton (DHI), the nation’s largest homebuilder, which is now worth more than $700 million. Berkshire also held small positions in home builders
Linar
(LEN) valued at less than $20 million and
NVR
(NVR) is valued at approximately $70 million.
Berkshire owns Clayton Homes, the largest producer of manufactured homes, and owns other housing-related businesses, including Shaw, a maker of carpet and flooring, and Benjamin Moore, a maker of paints.
Berkshire increased its stake in Capital One by about 25% to 12.5 million shares worth about $1.4 billion and canceled a holding in McKesson — about 2.3 million shares — totaling about $1 billion. Berkshire has reduced its stake in Celanese by about 40% to 5.4 million shares, now worth about $670 million.
Berkshire 13-F includes US equity holdings and occasional foreign investment. It’s also clear that there were overseas equity sales in the second quarter given that Berkshire disclosed total equity sales of about $12 billion in the period based on its last 10-Q report. Total sales reported on 13-F are only $12 billion.
Berkshire left its 93 million shares unchanged
Paramount Global
(PARA) in the second quarter. Barron speculated in a recent article that Berkshire may have been a seller of the media company’s stock given critical comments Buffett made in the spring about its broadcast prospects. He said broadcasting is “not really a good business” in an interview with CNBC. It is possible that the Paramount stake will be held by the directors of Berkshire Combs or Weschler rather than Buffett.
Berkshire is Paramount’s largest owner with a stake worth about $1.4 billion. Berkshire owns about 15% of Paramount.
Write to Andrew Bary at andrew.bary@barrons.com