Berkshire Hathaway Bought Apple, Chevron Stock, Sold GM, Verizon

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Berkshire Hathaway added to its stakes in

Apple
,

Chevron
,

Occidental Petroleum
,
and

Activision Blizzard

in the second quarter, according to a regulatory filing late Monday.

Berkshire Hathaway (ticker:

BRKb

) sold out of a small remaining position in

Verizon Communications

(ticker:

VZ

) that was sharply reduced in the first quarter, and trimmed its holding in

General Motors

(

GM

) by about nine million shares to 52.9 million shares. The Verizon holding had been just 1.4 million shares on March 31, down from nearly 160 million shares are year-end 2021.

Some of these purchases have been disclosed in earlier filings while others are newly released in the 13-F filing Monday.

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Berkshire Hathaway scaled back its stock purchases in the second quarter from the torrid activity in the first quarter. Berkshire was a buyer of $6 billion of stock in the second quarter, down from $51 billion in the first quarter. It was a net buyer (purchases less sales) of $4 billion in the second quarter, down from $41 billion in the first three months of the year.

Berkshire Hathaway bought four million additional shares of Apple (AAPL), its largest holding, in the second quarter, bringing its position to 894.8 million shares. The company’s recent 10-Q showed an Apple position of 915 million shares. For some Berkshire Hathaway holdings, the 10-Q and 13-F count the shares differently, with the 10-Q showing a broader holding.

Berkshire Hathaway bought 2.4 million more shares of Chevron (CVX), lifting its stake to 161.4 million shares, and bought 22 million more shares of Occidental Petroleum (OXY), bringing the total ownership to 158.5 million shares as of June 30. Berkshire Hathaway has since bought more Oxy stock and recently held 188 million shares, a 20% stake in the energy company.

Berkshire Hathaway bought four million more shares of Activision Blizzard (ATVI) in the second quarter, raising the total to 68.3 million shares. CEO
Warren Buffett
told shareholders at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting in late April that the company had added to its stake in the videogame maker as an arbitrage play.

Microsoft

(MSFT) has a deal to buy Activision for $95 a share and Activision trades around $80.

Berkshire Hathaway cut its holding in grocer

Kroger

(KR) by five million shares to 52.4 million shares.

Berkshire Hathaway added to its stake in

Paramount Global

(PARA) in the second quarter, boosting the position by more than 9 million shares to 78.4 million, which is now worth about $2 billion. Berkshire Hathaway sharply boosted its holding in

Ally Financial

(ALLY) by 20 million shares to 28.7 million, a stake now worth around $1 billion.

Berkshire Hathaway trimmed its holding in

U.S. Bancorp

(USB) by six million shares to 119.8 million shares, a stake of $5.8 billion. Berkshire reduced its position in Store Capital (STOR) by eight million shares to 6.9 million.

Write to Andrew Bary at [email protected]