Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. reduced its investment in Goldman Sachs Group Inc.by 13 percent during the third quarter.
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It reported a 59.32 million share stake in AT&T Inc, which bought Berkshire investment DirecTV during the quarter.
Mr Buffett agreed in August to buy aerospace equipment-maker Precision Castparts for more than $30bn.
The filing also discussed other changes in Berkshire’s USA stock portfolio during the quarter.
Buffett did sell a few stocks, most notably trimming his stake in Goldman Sachs and Wal-Mart.
Berkshire reducing its stakes in Goldman Sachs and Walmart may indicate that Warren Buffett has less confidence in the companies.
Buffett has periodically added to Berkshire’s IBM stake since he first disclosed it in late 2011 because he believes in its long-term prospects.
He also got warrants that he later used to get more than $2bn of the bank’s shares in a cashless transaction. Larger investments are typically Buffett’s. “However, I have pledged to you, the rating agencies and myself to always run Berkshire with more than ample cash”.
The S&P has put Berkshire on CreditWatch Negative because of the Precision Castparts deal. Berkshire had more than $66 billion in cash as of September 30, but needs to keep a large hoard to cover unexpected costs at insurance operations.
Yet again, over half of Buffett’s total equity holdings are heavily concentrated in just a few top holdings. Still, he said in a quarterly filing on November 6 that he had no plan to exit the holding and expected shares to recover.
His holdings in American Express (NYSE:AXP), Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) were unchanged during the quarter. (WMT) to 56.2 million shares from 58.3 million shares.
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Citing the company’s Monday filing, Bloomberg noted a large drop in stake ownership in both the investment firm and the retailer. In addition to investing in Malone’s Liberty Media, which controls Sirius XM radio and owns the Atlanta Braves, Berkshire holds a position worth about $900 million in Malone’s Liberty Global, which sells mostly in Europe.
