Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway made some significant changes to its portfolio in the second quarter of this year, according to a regulatory filing released on Wednesday. The filing revealed that Berkshire added new positions in Ulta Beauty and Heico Corp., while also making some adjustments to its existing holdings.
New Additions to the Portfolio
Berkshire Hathaway purchased approximately 690,000 shares of Ulta Beauty, a beauty products company. The value of this stake was estimated to be around $266 million as of June 30. The announcement of this investment caused Ulta Beauty’s shares to rise by 14% in after-hours trading.
Additionally, Berkshire bought about a million shares of Heico Corp., an aerospace and electronics manufacturing company. Following this news, Heico Corp.’s stock saw a nearly 4% increase in after-hours trading.
Exits from the Portfolio
The filing also revealed that Berkshire exited its position in Paramount Global, a rare bet that didn’t go as planned for Buffett. He had previously admitted to selling all shares in the company for a loss at the Berkshire annual shareholder’s meeting in May. Furthermore, Berkshire sold all of its stake in technology firm Snowflake. At the end of the first quarter, Berkshire had held 6.1 million shares in Snowflake, valued at about $989 million.
Trimming and Adjustments to Holdings
Berkshire Hathaway significantly reduced its holdings in Apple Inc., cutting its stake by nearly half. However, Apple still remains Berkshire’s top holding, accounting for approximately one-third of its portfolio. By the end of the second quarter, Berkshire held 400,000 shares of Apple, valued at $84.2 billion.
Berkshire also trimmed its positions in Chevron Corp., Floor & Decor, and T-Mobile. The company sold nearly 4.3 million shares in Chevron, increasing Chevron’s weight in the Berkshire portfolio to 6.6% as of June 30. Berkshire shed 2.6 million shares in Capital One, over 800,000 shares in Floor & Decor, and approximately 570,000 shares in T-Mobile.
On the other hand, Berkshire made some additions to its existing positions. The company bought an additional 7.2 million shares of Occidental Petroleum, bringing its total stake to roughly 255 million shares valued at nearly $16 billion. Berkshire also added a little over 1.1 million shares of Chubb Limited, a mystery stock investment that was unveiled at the end of the previous quarter. This increased Berkshire’s total share count of Chubb Limited to 27 million.
Conclusion
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway made several changes to its portfolio in the second quarter of this year. The company added new positions in Ulta Beauty and Heico Corp., while also making adjustments to its existing holdings. These changes reflect Berkshire’s strategy of continuously evaluating and adjusting its investments to optimize its portfolio. It will be interesting to see how these moves impact Berkshire’s performance in the coming quarters.
