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Warren Buffett Piles Into More Occidental as Berkshire Hathaway Lifts Stake to 20.9%Warren Buffett Piles Into More Occidental as Berkshire Hathaway Lifts Stake to 20.9% Barron's (Online); New York Berkshire Hathaway added to its large stake in Occidental Petroleum in recent days, buying about 6 million shares and lifting its stake in the big energy company to 20.9%, according to a filing late Wednesday. Berkshire Hathaway (ticker: BRK/A, BRK/B) spent about $350 million on the purchases of Occidental Petroleum (OXY) shares which occurred from Monday through Wednesday at prices ranging from $57.91 to $61.38 per share. Berkshire now holds 194.4 million shares of Occidental worth about $11.9 billion based on the oil-and-gas company's closing price of $61.41 Wednesday. The stock rose 4.9% along with other energy stocks Wednesday as oil prices rebounded after a recent slide. Berkshire needs to file a form 4 with the Securities and Exchange Commission within two business days when it buys or sells stock in Occidental Petroleum because it holds more than 10% of the company. Barron's wrote Tuesday that there was some speculation that Berkshire was a buyer of Occidental in recent sessions because its stock moved below $60 a share for the first time since early August, when Berkshire last bought stock in Occidental. Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, who oversees the company's big equity portfolio, has preferred to pay less than $60 a share for Occidental since he began accumulating the shares earlier this year. Berkshire paid less than $60 for most of its buys in the past few days. There remains speculation that Berkshire ultimately wants to buy the rest of Occidental –which could cost over $60 billion at price of more than $80 a share. Buffett is a fan of Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub and likes American companies. Occidental gets the bulk of its daily energy production of more than one million barrels a day from the U.S. Occidental trades for just six times projected 2022 earnings but has a somewhat higher price/earnings ratio of seven on 2023 estimates, reflecting an expectation of weaker oil and gas prices. |
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