Warren Buffett's Berkshire builds $4.9 billion stake in Alphabet

By Alexandre Rajbhandari

 

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. acquired 17.9 million shares of Google parent Alphabet Inc. during the third quarter, while further trimming its holdings in Bank of America Corp. and Apple Inc.

 

Berkshire’s Alphabet stake, representing 0.31 per cent of the outstanding shares, according to a regulatory filing Friday, was worth about $4.9 billion as of the market close.

 

Shares of Alphabet rose 1.7 per cent to $281 in extended trading at 5:05 p.m. in New York.  

 

Buffett, 95, who plans to step down as chief executive officer at year-end, has been finding ways to deploy some of Berkshire’s cash pile, which rose to a record $382 billion at the end of the quarter. The Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate recently reached a deal to buy Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s petrochemical business for $9.7 billion and acquired a $1.6 billion stake in UnitedHealth Group Inc.

 

Berkshire also added 4.3 million shares of insurer Chubb Ltd., boosting the value of that holding to $8.8 billion at the end of the quarter.

 

Still, the company was a net seller of equities during the period, offloading $6.1 billion of stocks. 

 

Berkshire trimmed its Apple stake by 15 per cent, leaving it with a holding valued at $60.7 billion as of Sept. 30. The Cupertino, California-based iPhone maker still accounts for almost a quarter of Berkshire’s equity portfolio. 

 

The conglomerate sold 37.2 million Bank of America shares, leaving it with a 7.7 per cent stake in the Wall Street firm.

 

Berkshire also exited its position in US home builder D.R. Horton Inc., while it continued to add to its holding in Lennar Corp.