Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
- Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway slashed its stake in Goldman Sachs and exited its positions in Philips 66 and Travelers in the first quarter, a financial filing on Friday showed.
- The billionaire investor’s company cut its Goldman holdings by 84%, driving their value down from about $2.8 billion to less than $300 million.
- Berkshire also trimmed its stakes in Amazon, JPMorgan, Sirius XM, and other companies.
- The stock sales, along with the coronavirus sell-off, reduced the value of Berkshire’s stock portfolio by 27% to $176 billion.
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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway slashed its Goldman Sachs holdings and sold its stakes in energy group Philips 66 and insurer Travelers in the first quarter, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing released on Friday.
The famed investor’s conglomerate cut its Goldman position by 84%, from about 12 million shares at the end of December to fewer than 2 million at the end of March. The sales, coupled with the investment bank’s stock tumbling by a third in the period, resulted in Berkshire’s Goldman stake shrinking in value from about $2.8 billion to less than $300 million.
Berkshire exited its positions in Philips 66 and Travelers, which were worth about $25 million and $43 million respectively on December 31. It also trimmed several holdings including Amazon, JPMorgan, Liberty Global, Sirius XM, Synchrony Financial, Teva Pharmaceuticals, and Verisign.
The company only made a few stock purchases in the period. It boosted its stake in regional bank PNC by 6%, and surprisingly raised its stakes in two of the “big four” airlines before dumping them all in April.
Berkshire’s stock sales, coupled with the coronavirus sell-off, meant the total value of its stock portfolio tumbled by 27% in the first quarter, from about $242 billion to $176 billion.
The SEC filing confirmed Buffett’s comments at Berkshire’s annual meeting this month, where he signaled the company has been relatively inactive.
Berkshire’s first-quarter earnings revealed it made just $1.8 billion in net stock purchases in the period, surprising many people who expected Buffett to deploy the group’s massive cash pile to buy stocks during the market meltdown.
Moreover, the company netted about $6.1 billion from stock sales in April after ditching the airlines.
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