Buffett’s Berkshire keeps buying Occidental Petroleum stock
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway continued buying Occidental Petroleum shares this week just days after he told shareholders that he had amassed a 14% stake in the oil producer.
Berkshire Hathaway now controls 15.2% of Occidental’s stock after buying nearly 5.9 million more shares on Monday and Tuesday. The conglomerate disclosed the latest purchases in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday.
Occidental’s shares opened at $63.56 Thursday after the disclosure before falling off to $61.97 in the afternoon.
Buffett said at Berkshire’s annual meeting on Saturday that he loaded up on Occidental shares earlier this year after reading a presentation the company put together that made a ton of sense to him. Berkshire’s stake in on common stock of Houston-based Occidental is now worth roughly $8.8 billion, but Berkshire also holds $10 billion worth of preferred shares in the company and warrants to buy another 83.9 million Occidental shares for $59.62 apiece.
Berkshire’s Occidental purchases were one of the highlights Buffett mentioned when telling shareholders about what the Omaha,
Nebraska-based company spent $51 billion on. Berkshire also invested heavily in oil giant Chevron and picked up a few more Apple shares to expand its massive stake in the iPhone maker.
Buffett’s spending spree helped reduce Berkshire’s cash pile to $106 billion at the end of the first quarter from $147 billion at the beginning of the year. But he still has plenty to spend even though he says he’ll always keep at least $30 billion on hand to cover any significant claims on insurance policies Berkshire’s companies write. (AP)