Fuente: Zerohedge.com
Buffett added 2 new banks to his portfolio, JPMorgan and PNC Financial, adding some 35.7 million shares of the former and 6.1 million shares of the latter, amounting to $4 billion and $829 million as of Sept. 30, respectively.
Why the bank additions? Buffett may be hoping that a stronger U.S. economy and rising interest rates will benefit the nation’s biggest banks. In fact, Berkshire is now a major shareholder in four of the five biggest U.S. banks - only Citi is not on the list - and he boosted his investments in Bank of America Corp. by 29 percent and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. by 38 percent (more below).
Berkshire entered new stakes in Oracle in the third quarter (41.4 million shares, or $2.1BN as of Sept 30) and put on a new bet on insurer Travelers (3.5 million shares, amounting to $460MM), which is somewhat surprising as it competes with Berkshire's own Geico unit. These new positions were offset by exits in his smallish positions in Walmart and Sanofi.
Buffett also boosted his stakes in Apple by 523K shares, bringing his total to 252.5MM shares, amounting to $57 billion as of Sept. 30, a number which is about 20% lower today, when the world's most valuable entered a bear market. Berkshire also added to its stakes in Bank of America, US Bancorp, Goldman, Bank of New York Mellon - in fact his 77.8 million stake makes him BoNY's top shareholder with a 7.9% stake in the custody bank - as well as Delta, and General Motors.
With these latest additions, Buffett is now the biggest shareholder in Bank of America, Bank of New York, Wells Fargo and US Bancorp.
Buffett also unexpectedly cut stakes in what was formerly his favorite bank, Wells Fargo, which is now his 3rd most valuable position at $23.2BN as of Sept 30, after top holding Apple and dropping behind Bank of America, his 2nd largest holding at the end of Q3 at $25.8BN as of Sept 30. Berkshire also cut stakes in Phillips 66, as well as several airlines including American Airlines, United Continental, and Southwest.
Warren Buffett - Berkshire Hathaway
Period: Q3 2018
Portfolio date: 30 Sep 2018
No. of stocks: 46
Portfolio value: $221,020,177,000
| History | Stock | % of portfolio | Shares | Recent activity | Reported Price* | Value |
| ≡ | AAPL - Apple Inc. | 25.79 | 252,478,779 | Add 0.21% | $225.74 | $56,994,561,000 |
| ≡ | BAC - Bank of America Corp. | 11.69 | 877,248,600 | Add 29.20% | $29.46 | $25,843,745,000 |
| ≡ | WFC - Wells Fargo | 10.52 | 442,361,700 | Reduce 2.14% | $52.56 | $23,250,531,000 |
| ≡ | KO - Coca Cola Co. | 8.36 | 400,000,000 | | $46.19 | $18,476,000,000 |
| ≡ | KHC - Kraft Heinz Co. | 8.12 | 325,634,818 | | $55.11 | $17,945,735,000 |
| ≡ | AXP - American Express | 7.30 | 151,610,700 | | $106.49 | $16,145,025,000 |
| ≡ | USB - U.S. Bancorp | 2.98 | 124,923,092 | Add 24.06% | $52.81 | $6,597,189,000 |
| ≡ | MCO - Moody's Corp. | 1.87 | 24,669,778 | | $167.20 | $4,124,787,000 |
| ≡ | GS - Goldman Sachs Group | 1.86 | 18,353,635 | Add 38.47% | $224.24 | $4,115,619,000 |
| ≡ | JPM - JPMorgan Chase & Co. | 1.82 | 35,664,767 | Buy | $112.84 | $4,024,412,000 |
| ≡ | BK - Bank of New York | 1.80 | 77,849,476 | Add 20.14% | $50.99 | $3,969,546,000 |
| ≡ | DAL - Delta Air Lines Inc. | 1.71 | 65,535,000 | Add 2.94% | $57.83 | $3,789,889,000 |
| ≡ | LUV - Southwest Airlines | 1.58 | 56,047,399 | Reduce 0.88% | $62.45 | $3,500,160,000 |
| ≡ | DVA - DaVita HealthCare Partners | 1.25 | 38,565,570 | | $71.63 | $2,762,452,000 |
| ≡ | CHTR - Charter Communications | 1.08 | 7,340,985 | Reduce 2.17% | $325.88 | $2,392,280,000 |
| ≡ | UAL - United Continental Holdings | 1.05 | 25,984,542 | Reduce 2.62% | $89.06 | $2,314,183,000 |
| ≡ | ORCL - Oracle Corp. | 0.97 | 41,404,791 | Buy | $51.56 | $2,134,832,000 |
| ≡ | VRSN - Verisign Inc. | 0.94 | 12,952,745 | | $160.12 | $2,073,994,000 |
| ≡ | AAL - American Airlines Group Inc. | 0.82 | 43,700,000 | Reduce 2.24% | $41.33 | $1,806,121,000 |
| ≡ | GM - General Motors | 0.80 | 52,461,411 | Add 2.08% | $33.67 | $1,766,376,000 |
| ≡ | PSX - Phillips 66 | 0.79 | 15,433,024 | Reduce 55.56% | $112.72 | $1,739,611,000 |
| ≡ | USG - USG Corp. | 0.76 | 39,002,016 | | $43.31 | $1,689,178,000 |
| ≡ | V - Visa Inc. | 0.72 | 10,562,460 | | $150.09 | $1,585,320,000 |
| ≡ | LSXMK - Liberty SiriusXM Series C | 0.61 | 31,090,985 | | $43.45 | $1,350,903,000 |
| ≡ | MA - Mastercard Inc. | 0.50 | 4,934,756 | | $222.61 | $1,098,526,000 |
| ≡ | COST - Costco Co. | 0.46 | 4,333,363 | | $234.88 | $1,017,820,000 |
| ≡ | TEVA - Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. | 0.42 | 43,249,295 | | $21.54 | $931,589,000 |
| ≡ | MTB - M&T Bank Corp. | 0.40 | 5,382,040 | | $164.54 | $885,561,000 |
| ≡ | SIRI - Sirius XM Holdings Inc. | 0.39 | 137,915,729 | | $6.32 | $871,627,000 |
| ≡ | PNC - PNC Financial Services | 0.38 | 6,087,319 | Buy | $136.19 | $829,032,000 |
| ≡ | AXTA - Axalta Coating Systems Ltd. | 0.32 | 24,264,000 | | $29.16 | $707,538,000 |
| ≡ | LSXMA - Liberty Sirius XM Series A | 0.29 | 14,860,360 | | $43.44 | $645,535,000 |
| ≡ | SYF - Synchrony Financial | 0.29 | 20,803,000 | | $31.08 | $646,557,000 |
| ≡ | LBTYA - Liberty Global Inc. | 0.26 | 19,791,000 | | $28.93 | $572,553,000 |
| ≡ | TMK - Torchmark Corp. | 0.25 | 6,353,727 | | $86.69 | $550,804,000 |
| ≡ | QSR - Restaurant Brands International | 0.23 | 8,438,225 | | $59.28 | $500,218,000 |
| ≡ | STOR - STORE Capital Corp. | 0.23 | 18,621,674 | | $27.79 | $517,496,000 |
| ≡ | TRV - Travelers Companies Inc. | 0.21 | 3,543,688 | Buy | $129.71 | $459,652,000 |
| ≡ | LBTYK - Liberty Global Inc. C | 0.09 | 7,346,968 | | $28.16 | $206,891,000 |
| ≡ | LILA - Liberty LiLAC Group A | 0.03 | 2,714,854 | | $20.84 | $56,578,000 |
| ≡ | JNJ - Johnson & Johnson | 0.02 | 327,100 | | $138.17 | $45,195,000 |
| ≡ | MDLZ - Mondelez International | 0.01 | 578,000 | | $42.96 | $24,831,000 |
| ≡ | PG - Procter & Gamble | 0.01 | 315,400 | | $83.23 | $26,251,000 |
| ≡ | LILAK - Liberty LiLAC Group C | 0.01 | 1,284,020 | | $20.63 | $26,489,000 |
| ≡ | UPS - United Parcel Service | 0.00 | 59,400 | | $116.75 | $6,935,000 |
| ≡ | VZ - Verizon Communications | 0.00 | 928 | | $53.88 | $50,000 |
