Warren Buffett boosts his bet on Occidental Petroleum's stock to $15 billion

By Tomi Kilgore

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway buys $312 million worth of Occidental shares this week, increasing its stake to more than 27%

Warren Buffett's appetite for Occidental Petroleum Corp.'s stock keeps growing, with the billionaire's Berkshire Hathaway Corp. boosting its stake in the oil-and-gas company by more than $300 million in the past week.

Berkshire Hathaway is by far Occidental's largest shareholder, as Buffett's investment vehicle now owns 27.7% of Occidental's outstanding shares. The second-biggest is investment firm Dodge & Cox at 10.3%, according to FactSet data.

Occidental's stock (OXY) surged 2% in morning trading, to put it on track for the highest close in more than five weeks. Berkshire Hathaway shares (BRK.B) (BRK.A) tacked on 0.5%.

Buffett bought 5.18 million shares in Occidental over the past three sessions at a weighted average price of about $60.22. That valued the shares purchased at about $312.1 million.

Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show that Buffett now owns 243.7 million Occidental shares, or 27.7% of the 880.37 million shares outstanding as of Sept. 30. At current stock prices, Buffett's holdings of Occidental shares would be valued at $15.03 billion.

That means that over the past three months, since Berkshire Hathaway disclosed its equity stakes through the third quarter, Buffett has bought 19.6 million Occidental shares, which would currently be valued at $1.21 billion.

Earlier in December, Occidental announced a $12 billion deal to buy CrownRock LP to enhance its position in the oil-rich Permian basin.

Over a three-day period starting the day the deal was announced on Dec. 11, Berkshire bought about 10.5 million Occidental shares valued at nearly $590 million.

Occidental's stock has lost 2.1% year to date, while the Energy Select Sector SPDR exchange-traded fund XLE has shed 2.3% and the S&P 500 index SPX has rallied 24.2%.

-Tomi Kilgore

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12-22-23 1015ET

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