http://www.cnbc.com/id/47432553
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Adds GM to Holdings
Published: Tuesday, 15 May 2012 4:34 PM ET
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has been busy buying stocks, including a new stake in General Motors.
Berkshire's just-released 13-F filing with the SEC shows two new stocks were added to its portfolio during the first quarter of the year, and stakes were increased for another seven companies.
It also appears Berkshire was doing even more buying in the first three months of the year that it hasn't disclosed in this filing. It says that "confidential information has been omitted ... and filed separately" with the SEC.
That's often a sign Buffett is accumulating a large stake in a company but doesn't want copycats to drive up the price until he's done. Last year the omitted confidential information shielded Buffett's multi-month purchase of a $11 billion stake in IBM.
Berkshire added a 10 million share position in General Motors [GM 21.42 -0.21 (-0.97%) ] , worth about $222 million at today's closing price of $22.18. The stock is moving higher in after-hours trading.
Given the relatively small size of the stake, however, it was almost certainly bought for Berkshire by one of Buffett's new portfolio managers, Todd Combs or Ted Weschler, not by Buffett himself.
Viacom [VIA.B 51.19 -0.03 (-0.06%) ] is another new stock in the list. Berkshire held about 1.6 million shares as of March 31. That position is worth about $75 million at today's close of $46.99. Again, it's unlikely Buffett himself pulled the trigger on that one.
Increased Stakes
Bank of New York Mellon: Added 3,813,551 shares (+213%), currently worth $80.6 million.
[BK 21.13 -0.27 (-1.26%) ]
Davita: Added 3,315,500 shares (+124%), currently worth $272.6 million.
[DVA 82.23 0.24 (+0.29%) ]
Liberty Media: Added 1,298,600 shares (+76%), currently worth $137.0 million.
[LMCA 84.43 -1.31 (-1.53%) ]
Wal-Mart: Added 7,671,000 shares (+20%), currently worth $455.3 million.
[WMT 59.35 0.28 (+0.47%) ]
DirecTV: Added 2,651,200 shares (+13%), currently worth $124.5 million.
[DTV 46.98 0.05 (+0.11%) ]
Wells Fargo: Added 10,631,300 shares (+3%), currently worth $342.8 million.
[WMT 59.35 0.28 (+0.47%) ]
IBM: Added 489,769 shares (+1%), currently worth $97.5 million.
[IBM 199.04 -0.40 (-0.2%) ]
Decreased Stakes
Verisk Analytics: Dropped 1,214,881 shares (-35%), currently worth $59.4 million.
[VRSK 48.89 0.20 (+0.41%) ]
Intel: Dropped 3,750,000 shares (-33%), currently worth $100.8 million.
[INTC 26.88 -0.135 (-0.5%) ]
Dollar General: Dropped 860,083 shares (-19%), currently worth $40.4 million.
[DG 47.00 0.18 (+0.38%) ]
Kraft Foods: Dropped 9,017,548 shares (-10%), currently worth $350.1 million.
[KFT 38.82 -0.22 (-0.56%) ]
Procter & Gamble: Dropped 3,511,900 shares (-5%), currently worth $223.8 million.
[PG 63.72 0.14 (+0.22%) ]
US Bancorp: Dropped 100 shares (0%), currently worth $3,130.
[USB 31.30 -0.26 (-0.82%) ]
Today's filing doesn't include the 1,218,199 shares of Comdisco Holding [CDCO 5.15 --- UNCH (0) ] shares that were included in the Q4 list.
The market value of Berkshire's reported holdings totaled $75.3 billion as of March 31, up from $66.2 billion as of December 31, 2011. That increase of 13.7 percent is presumably due to both the addition of new stock and higher prices for some of the shares Berkshire already held.