2024-02-23 08:43:33 ET
In investing, no name is so legendary as the ‘oracle of Omaha’, Warren Buffett.
So, it makes sense that investors everywhere want to know what the Berkshire Hathaway boss is backing at all times.
Yet he can be notoriously secretive about his decisions – which is why the financial world was overjoyed with Berkshire Hathaway’s recent 13F SEC filing.
Show all your cards: the 13F filing
The term ‘13F’ refers to a United States rule from regulatory body the Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC), which states that companies of a certain size need to file a ‘13F form’ disclosing their holdings for each quarter.
The good news for investors here is that this information can be publicly available on the SEC’s database, which can give a good idea as to what stocks Buffett, for example, has been buying.
The bad news is that certain companies filing with the SEC can request for some of the listing to be made confidential in order to not reveal the ‘secret sauce’ to their success – and Berkshire Hathaway does do this.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t get a solid understanding from the SEC filing of some of the things Buffett did – and didn’t invest in ahead of the start of 2024.
Here, we break down four stocks Warren Buffett seems bullish on in 2024 so far – and two he seems to cutting back on.
1. American Oil – especially Occidental Petroleum
United States oil has had a bumper end of 2023 and start to 2024. Even OPEC’s monthly oil market reports have since November been saying that US oil supply growth just keeps on going up and up.
Berkshire Hathaway seems especially bullish on Occidental, the US petroleum company with operations throughout the Americas, which had already owned before it bought more in Q4 of 2023.
Occidental is currently pursuing hydrocarbon exploration, so that may be a reason why Berkshire Hathaway continued to be enamoured with it.
2. Chevron
Speaking of oil – one of the biggest splurges of Berkshire Hathaway in Q4 was its adding to its already-stacked pile of Chevron (CVX) shares.
Chevron is, of course, one of the ‘big oil’ companies on American soil, and the company had previously cut its stake in Chevron slightly in previous quarters, before adding a whopping 14 percent again during Q4.
3. Berkshire Hathaway’s old faithful: Apple
The biggest slice Berkshire Hathaway has is still Apple, which comprises just over 50% of the company’s portfolio alone.
Despite reducing its Apple stake slightly during Q4 – just one percent – Berkshire Hathaway still seems bullish on the company.
4. JPMorgan Chase?
In an article entitled ‘Warren Buffett’s mystery stock’, Yahoo!finance quoted finance professor David Kass, who opined that the Berkshire Hathaway may well be buying stock in banking titan JPMorgan Chase.
The reasons Kass gave were that Buffett is a personal admirer of JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dinon and that Berkshire Hathaway’s CIO, is a JPMorgan director as well.
5. Cutting back on: Paramount Global
Paramount Global has lost almost 19 percent of its stock value this year so far alone, with the company currently on the selling block, with certain entities interested in buying the longtime entertainment business, according to Bloomberg .
Berkshire Hathaway seems unimpressed, with the company reportedly selling a whopping 30 million Paramount shares in Q4.
6. Also cutting back on: higher-risk finance stocks
Among the shares Berkshire Hathaway sold in their entirety, there were noticeably higher-risk, small financial services brands.
For example, Berkshire totally sold off its shares in Brazil’s StoneCo (STNE), a fintech which has operations in South Africa too, and also sold off their stake in smaller insurer Markel Group.
On that note, we’re also seeing that American stocks seems to be winning at Berkshire Hathaway at the moment – perhaps due to a stronger dollar and a bullish US sentiment for 2024 compared to other nations.
Read more: What is Warren Buffett’s net worth in 2024?
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