Berkshire Hathaway’s Recent Shopping

Recent SEC filings give us a peek into what Berkshire Hathaway’s managers have been buying and selling.  I just got a hold of the three recent quarterly institutional managers holdings reports filed by Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A).

The first thing I noticed was that it appears that Warren Buffett has increased his Wells Fargo (WFC) holdings. I’m a bit surprised by this move given the current lending market. I’ll have to look into this a bit more closely.

The filings also reveals the exact amount of Anheuser Busch (BUD) Berkshire has accumulated.  It was a whopping $1.88 billion worth of shares. 

It also looks like a few more shares of First Data Corporation (FDC) were added.  They also tripled the position in Lexmark (LXK).  It seems Buffett or another manager at Berkshire are very confident in this investment.  I’m not so sure I think that Lexmark has a wide moat, but I guess it the attraction must be in the printer cartridge model that is somewhat similar to the Gillette razor blade model.

As previously noted in the press, Berkshire has purchased a large position in Wal-Mart (WMT) and this filing shows that it is worth about $900 million.  The moat is rather clear with this pick.

It looks like some Gap (GPS) shares were sold off this past quarter. I never thought Gap had a wide moat, so I think the selling was a good move. The Iron Mountain (IRM) position was also reduced.  Shaw Communications (SJR) is gone completely.

It’s always interesting to see what Warren Buffett and his other managers have been doing in their portfolios.  I think I’ll be taking a closer look at Lexmark, First Data, and Wells Fargo for my own stock research.