"Oracle of Omaha" Tigers Up Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway acquires ExxonMobil stake
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OMAHA, Neb. -- Billionaire Warren Buffett's company has purchased a nearly $60 million stake in Exxon Mobil Corp., trimmed holdings in oil rival ConocoPhillips and nearly doubled its stake in Wal-Mart Stores Inc. during the latest quarter. Omaha, Neb.-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. disclosed the changes to its $59.7 billion U.S. stock portfolio in a Securities & Exchange Commission filing Monday, said the Associated Press.
During the quarter ended September 30, Berkshire Hathaway bought nearly 855,000 shares of Exxon Mobil. Its stake in ConocoPhillips was cut from more than 64 million shares at the end of June to more than 57 million shares, valued at nearly $2.6 billion.
Berkshire Hathaway's stake in Wal-Mart, valued at $1.65 billion, stood at 33.6 million shares at the end of September, up from nearly 20 million at the end of June.
A separate filing Monday by the Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation showed it raised its stake in Berkshire Hathaway to more than 1.6 million Class B shares, worth $3,431 apiece, from 1.25 million. Another filing Monday shows financier George Soros' company, Soros Fund Management LLC, increased his stake in Berkshire Hathaway to 10 Class A shares—valued at around $103,000 apiece—from the previous four. Soros also acquired 200 Class B shares.
Investors follow Berkshire's holdings reports closely because of "Oracle of Omaha" Buffett's legendary reputation as a savvy investor able to spot stock market bargains and then sell holdings that get overpriced.
Separately, a weakening U.S. dollar has added between $20 and $25 a barrel to the price of oil, creating a "disconnection" between the price and supply and demand levels, ExxonMobil Corp. CEO Rex Tillerson said Friday.
Tillerson, who manages the world's biggest oil company, said oil demand in the United States has remained sluggish despite an economic recovery and a jump in crude prices to $82 last month from $32 in December.
"There's been little demand pickup as of yet," Tillerson said after a speech at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Singapore, reported AP. "There has clearly been for some time a disconnection between the fundamentals of supply and demand and the current price for crude oil."
Tillerson said the price of oil would probably be around $55 a barrel if the dollar had not depreciated against the euro during the last 18 months.
"You could say oil is about $20 to $25 a barrel higher simply because it's priced in dollars and there's a weak dollar," he added.
Benchmark crude for December delivery was down $1.31 to $75.63 a barrel in New York morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX).
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A separate filing Monday by the Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation showed it raised its stake in Berkshire Hathaway to more than 1.6 million Class B shares, worth $3,431 apiece, from 1.25 million. Another filing Monday shows financier George Soros' company, Soros Fund Management LLC, increased his stake in Berkshire Hathaway to 10 Class A shares—valued at around $103,000 apiece—from the previous four. Soros also acquired 200 Class B shares.