Morningstar

Berkshire Sold Close to $10 Billion Worth of Stocks During Q4

Taiwan Semiconductor, U.S. Bancorp, and Bank of New York Mellon stock accounted for most of the reductions in the company’s portfolio.

Berkshire Hathaway logo on cellphone.
Securities In This Article
Alphabet Inc Class A
(GOOGL)
BYD Co Ltd ADR
(BYDDY)
Bank of New York Mellon Corp
(BK)
Berkshire Hathaway Inc Class A
(BRK.A)
McKesson Corp
(MCK)

Wide-moat Berkshire Hathaway BRK.B reported a relatively busy fourth quarter for its equity investment portfolio, with net sales (exclusive of purchases) coming in at an estimated $9.7 billion based on the insurer’s 13-F filing (as well as a similar filing for New England Asset Management, which managed $5.4 billion of equities for Berkshire at the end of December).

The biggest reductions on an absolute basis from the combined portfolios came from sales of Taiwan Semiconductor TSM (with Berkshire eliminating 51.8 million shares, or 86% of its holdings, for an estimated $3.7 billion), U.S. Bancorp USB (86.1 million shares, or 91% of its holdings, for an estimated $3.6 billion), and Bank of New York Mellon BK (37.4 million shares, or 60% of its holdings, for an estimated $1.6 billion).

Other activity included the trimming of stakes in Activision Blizzard ATVI (7.4 million shares for an estimated $560 million), Chevron (2.4 million shares for an estimated $390 million), and McKesson MCK (0.3 million shares for an estimated $120 million). Berkshire and NEAM raised another estimated $180 million reducing stakes in more than 40 smaller holdings, while the elimination of stakes in more than 60 other small holdings raised another $20 million.

Missing from the filings is Berkshire’s sale of shares in BYD Company BYDDY, the Chinese electric car maker. Since August of last year, the insurer has sold off more than one third of the 20.5% stake it has held since 2008, with the sale of another 4.2. million shares earlier this month, lowering its stake in BYD to around 12%.

Around $415 million of the proceeds generated during the fourth quarter were directed to stock purchases focused primarily on enhancing stakes in existing stock and ETF holdings. There were, however, three new money purchases during the period: KeyCorp KEY (0.3 million shares for an estimated $5 million), AT&T T (0.3 million shares for an estimated $5 million), and Alphabet Class A GOOGL (17,100 shares for an estimated $1.6 million).

The author or authors do not own shares in any securities mentioned in this article. Find out about Morningstar’s editorial policies.

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About the Author

Greggory Warren, CFA

Strategist
More from Author

Greggory Warren, CFA, is a strategist, AM Financial Services, for Morningstar*. He covers the traditional US- and Canadian-based traditional asset managers, as well as the alternative asset managers and Berkshire Hathaway. Over the course of his career, Warren has covered not only financial services names but companies from the consumer staples and consumer cyclicals sectors, and been involved in portfolio stock selection and management.

Prior to joining Morningstar in 2005, Warren worked as a buy-side equity analyst for more than eight years, covering consumer staples and consumer cyclicals. Before assuming his current role at Morningstar in 2017, Warren covered the financial-services sector as a senior analyst since late 2008. Prior to that time, he covered the non-alcoholic beverage manufacturers and distributors, packaged food firms, food service distributors, and tobacco companies.

Warren holds a bachelor's degree in accounting and English from Augustana College. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation and is a member of the CFA Society of Chicago.

During 2014-19, Warren was selected to participate each year on the analyst panel at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting, asking questions directly of Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. The analyst panel was disbanded ahead of Berkshire’s 2020 annual meeting. Warren also ranked second in the investment services industry in The Wall Street Journal’s annual “Best on the Street” analysts survey in 2013, the last year the survey was conducted.

* Morningstar Research Services LLC (“Morningstar”) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc

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