Berkshire Hathaway boosts its Kroger holdings
Billionaire Warren Buffett’s company has again increased the size of its bet on grocery giant Kroger, while scaling back several of its health care industry investments.
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., based in Omaha, Nebraska, said in a quarterly update with regulators this week that it picked up nearly 11 million shares of Kroger stock during the second quarter, raising its holdings to 61.8 million shares. Buffett’s company has been steadily adding to its Kroger holdings in recent quarters.
Based on Kroger’s closing share price of $45.44 on Tuesday, Berkshire Hathaway’s stake in the Cincinnati-based company is worth about $2.8 billion.
Many investors follow Berkshire Hathaway’s moves closely because of Buffett’s remarkably successful track record of investing.
Kroger has a large presence in Wisconsin through its Milwaukee-based Roundy’s Supermarkets subsidiary.
Roundy’s operates 106 stores under the Pick ‘n Save and Metro Market banners in Wisconsin. The company has stores in nearly every population center in the state including Milwaukee and its suburbs, plus Sheboygan, Green Bay, Appleton, Oshkosh, Wausau, Manitowoc, Fond du Lac, Marshfield, Wisconsin Rapids, Stevens Point, Sturgeon Bay and Madison.
Berkshire rebalances portfolio
While it added Kroger shares, Berkshire also sold off its 643,022 shares of biotechnology firm Biogen and cut its investments in drugmakers Merck, Abbvie Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.
Berkshire also reported a new 1.6 million share stake in Merck spinoff Organon
& Co.
During the quarter, Berkshire also sold its nearly 14 million shares of paint maker Axalta Coating Systems to eliminate that holding.
Berkshire officials don’t generally comment on these quarterly filings. And the quarterly filing doesn’t make clear which investments Buffett made.
The billionaire handles the biggest investments in Berkshire’s portfolio, such as Apple, Coca-Cola and Bank of America. He has said that investments of less than $1 billion are likely to be the work of Berkshire’s two other investment managers.