Buffett's Berkshire boosts Bank of America stake

Berkshire Hathaway spends more than $800 million to boost its second-biggest stock position.

VIEW IN BROWSER | SUBSCRIBE FRI, JUL 24, 2020 WARREN BUFFETT WATCH Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway raises Bank of America stake to over 11% After not doing any significant buying amid the stock market's COVID-19 swoon in March and April, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has followed its $10 billion Dominion Energy deal in early July with a sizable bank stock purchase.   An SEC filing Wednesday evening revealed Berkshire paid more than $813 million to buy almost 34 million shares of Bank of America, raising its stake to 11.3% of the bank's outstanding shares. It had been 10.9%.   Last October, Berkshire asked the Federal Reserve for permission to go over 10%, the level at which regulators start asking questions about whether a shareholder has control, or wants control, over a bank. In that request, the company said it plans to remain a passive investor.   At the time, Berkshire's stake was about 10%, but has creeped higher in the months afterwards as the bank bought back its own shares.   Bloomberg reports that on April 20 the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond issued a "no-objection" letter.     Berkshire's stake of almost 982 million shares was worth $23.9 billion at today's close of $24.35.   That makes Bank of America Berkshire's second largest U.S. publicly-traded stock stake by market value, well behind Apple at $92.9 billion, and ahead of long-time holding Coca-Cola's $19.4 billion.  The purchases on Monday through Wednesday of this week were made at an average price of $23.99 per share.   BAC shares fell from their 52-week high of $35.72 late last year to a 52-week low of $17.95 on March 23, near the height of the stock market's COVID-19 selling.     In a CNBC interview on February 24, Buffett called Berkshire's bank stock holdings "very attractive to most other securities I see." He noted that Bank of America "is buying in a lot of stock every year ... so our ownership of Bank of America this year will probably go up 7 or 8% without us spending a dime."   In contrast to Berkshire's growing Bank of America stake, its holdings of one-time Buffett favorite Wells Fargo have been going the other way.   After selling about one-fifth of its shares in the second half of last year, Berkshire now has almost 346 million WFC shares worth a total of $9 billion. That's its sixth largest stock stake.   In that February interview, Buffett repeated his criticism of Wells for not moving quickly and decisively enough in response to revelations some employees had been trying to meet aggressive sales quotas by opening fake accounts using real customers' names.     When Becky Quick asked him how shareholders should see the disparities between the two holdings, Buffett, who makes it a point of not giving what he sees as stock advice, told her they should see "we've bought Bank of America and we've sold some Wells Fargo."   Due to the size of its stake, Berkshire now must publicly reveal any buying or selling of Bank of America shares, but there's no similar requirement for Wells Fargo.   We'll find out if the WFC selling continued in mid-August, when Berkshire files its portfolio snapshot showing its holdings as of the end of June. BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET Some links may require a subscription Zacks Value Investor Podcast: "Surprise! Warren Buffett Actually Owns Some of the Street's Hottest Stocks" MarketWatch: Warren Buffett's 'lost some of his mojo,' says longtime Berkshire shareholder with millions at stake MarketWatch: Warren Buffett is 'willing to look like an idiot in the short term,' according to 'Wall Street's biggest influencer' MarketWatch: Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has lost more market value in 2020 than all but 4 publicly traded U.S. companies Forbes: Elon Musk's SEXY Models Vs. Warren Buffett's Fruit Of The Loom Underwear CCN: Warren Buffett May Be Underestimated, But He Won't Be Denied BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH         BERKSHIRE'S TOP STOCK HOLDINGS      Berkshire's top stock holdings by market value, based on today's closing prices. The number of shares held is as of March 31, 2020, as disclosed in the company's May 15 13F SEC filing and other filings, except for Bank of America, which is as of June 22, 2020 and U.S. Bancorp, which is as of May 12, 2020.   Please note that in the April 24 newsletter, the number of shares listed for some holdings were revised to include previous filings besides the company's 13F. The changes did not reflect any buying or selling by Berkshire at that time.   The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.   QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS Please send any questions or comments about the newsletter to me at alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, but we don't forward questions or comments to Buffett himself.)   If you aren't already subscribed to this newsletter, you can sign up here.     -- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch   Unsubscribe Manage Newsletters Terms of Service   Digital Products Feedback Privacy Policy   © 2020 CNBC LLC. All rights reserved. A property of NBCUniversal. 900 Sylvan Avenue, Englewood Cliffs, NJ 07632 Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes and Market Data and Analysis. Data also provided by THOMSON REUTERS