Investment tycoon Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathway made significant changes in its stock portfolio in 2020, according to a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Buffett has bought new stakes in Verizon stock, Chevron (CVX) and Marsh & McLennan while cutting back its Apple stake by 6 percent. However, the iPhone maker remains the number 1 stock in his portfolio with Berkshire’s stake in Apple still valued at a staggering $120 billion.
The biggest bet was made on Verizon Communications Inc. with Berkshire spending an immense sum of $8.6 billion for 147 million of the telecom giant’s shares.
The second major investment was made in Chevron. Buffet’s conglomerate owned 48.5 million shares of the energy titan worth $4.1 billion at the end of December.
Berkshire also established a $500 million position in Marsh & McLennan, a professional-services firm.
The conglomerate secured regulatory permission to keep its three new positions confidential in its third-quarter portfolio update until it was done building them, given the risk that other investors would rush to buy them and drive up its cost base.
The investment firm was heavily invested in the banking sector at the start of last year but the reshaped portfolio indicates a few cuts to the firm’s bank holdings.
Among the stocks that Berkshire dumped entirely were JPMorgan Chase, Barrick Gold, M&T Bank and PNC Financial. The company’s stake in Wells Fargo & Co. was also slashed by 59 percent.
Interestingly, Berkshire also sold its entire Pfizer stock despite only investing in the drugmaker in the third quarter of 2020. However, Buffett and his team boosted their stakes in other pharmaceutical giants including AbbVie, Merck, and Bristol Myers Squibb last quarter.
