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A Few Surprises in Berkshire's 1st-Quarter Activity

The wide-moat firm made large additions to its stakes in Monstanto and Teva Pharmaceuticals and sold a significant slug of Versik Analytics shares.

Securities In This Article
Berkshire Hathaway Inc Class A
(BRK.A)

There were few big surprises in wide-moat-rated

Berkshire also made large additions to existing stakes in Monsanto and Teva Pharmaceuticals, increasing its holdings in the former by more than 60% (acquiring an additional 7.3 million shares of the agricultural products firm for an estimated $850 million) and more than doubling its stake in the latter (picking up 21.7 million more shares of the generic drug manufacturer for an estimated $390 million). Other purchases during the quarter included 3.7 million shares of US Bancorp, 1.4 million shares of Bank of New York Mellon, and 0.5 million shares of Delta Air Line (for an estimated $197 million, $73 million and $27 million, respectively).

While we knew about Berkshire's trimming of its Wells Fargo stake (selling 1.7 million shares for an estimated $97 million during the period) to keep its holdings below 10% of the bank's total outstanding shares, we were surprised to see the insurer sell more than 80% of its position in Verisk Analytics (for an estimated $128 million), while also eliminating its remaining stake in Graham Holdings (for an estimated $62 million). As for the remaining sales, Berkshire sold 0.3 million shares of Charter Communications, 1.9 million shares of Liberty Global PLC, 0.5 million shares of United Continental, and 0.2 million shares of Sanofi-Aventis (for an estimated $86 million, $66 million, $35 million and $7 million, respectively).

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About the Author

Greggory Warren, CFA

Strategist
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Greggory Warren, CFA, is a strategist for Morningstar Research Services LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. He covers the traditional U.S.-and Canadian-based asset managers, as well as Berkshire Hathaway.

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

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 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.

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