Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has asked regulators to keep its new stock purchases secret for the second consecutive quarter, while the conglomerate said in a new regulatory filing that The huge Apple stock was slightly reduced. Berkshire has asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to keep details of one or more of its stock holdings confidential. Many speculated that the secret purchases were banking stocks, as the 10th quarterly report for the third quarter suggested that Berkshire bought “banking, insurance, and financial” stocks for $1.2 billion. was. Requests for such treatment are relatively rare for Berkshire. The last time the company made an acquisition secret was in 2020 when it acquired Chevron and Verizon. Apple, Chevron The Omaha-based conglomerate sold about 10 million Apple shares last quarter, filings show. At the end of 2023, Berkshire still owned 905.56 million shares of the iPhone maker, worth more than $174 billion. Berkshire also added a large holding in Chevron last quarter, making the stake worth about $19 billion and making it the company’s fifth-largest holding. The conglomerate has been adjusting its energy stake for several quarters. Chevron is underperforming after a strong 2022. The stock sold off 17% last year and rose just 1% in 2024. HP and Paramount Berkshire have significantly reduced their stake in Paramount, holding about 63.3 million shares, or 32 shares, at the end of December. % less than the number of shares in the previous quarter. Paramount Global shares have risen recently following reports of a possible takeover offer, but the media company remains a rare loser for Berkshire. The conglomerate acquired its first non-voting stake in Paramount in the first quarter of 2022. Meanwhile, Buffett’s company continued to sell HP stock, dropping 78% to just 22.8 million shares in the fourth quarter. Berkshire first bought the tech hardware stock in April 2022. Many Buffett watchers already suspected that the Oracle of Omaha intended to exit the stock completely. In other moves, Berkshire exited positions in Brazilian fintech firm Stone, homebuilder DR Horton, and financial firms Markel and Globelife. Berkshire last month continued to buy Liberty Media’s tracking stake in New York-based satellite radio company SiriusXM, possibly as part of a merger arbitrage. The move is relatively small for Berkshire, but could come from either Ted Weschler or Todd Combs, the billionaire’s investment lieutenants. Meanwhile, Berkshire has already added a large stake to Occidental Petroleum in the new year, and now owns nearly 30% of the Houston-based energy producer.





