Buffett turns his back on ExxonMobil
February 18, 2015
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway dumped 41 million shares of oil company Exxon Mobil and snapped up a 5 percent stake in US agricultural equipment maker Deere & Co.
The disclosure was made public after the company filed an update on its fourth quarter stock investments with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Berkshire's decision to shed its $3.74 billion (3.29 billion euros) investment in Exxon Mobil was unexpected, since it had only recently acquired the stake in 2013.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based company also sold a smaller stake in US energy company ConocoPhillips, as oil prices dropped last fall.
During the third quarter of 2014, Berkshire started to raise its stake in Deere & Co worth $1.51 billion at year end, but had not previously disclosed it.
US regulators require big investors to disclose their stock holdings every quarter. The SEC often lets Buffett quietly accumulate large stakes to deter copycats.
In the disclosure, Berkshire reported increasing holdings in IBM and Canada's Suncor Energy, as well as a new 8.4 million-share stake in Restaurant Brands International, parent of the Burger King and Tim Hortons restaurant chains.
Buffett's company also acquired 4.7 million shares in Rupert Murdoch's media company Twenty-First Century Fox.
Called the "Oracle of Omaha" due to his savvy investments, Buffett, 84, is CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and reportedly worth $72.9 billion, making him the second-richest person in the world behind Bill Gates. His company owns more than 80 businesses ranging from Dairy Queen ice cream to Duracell batteries.
el/uhe (AP, Reuters)