World News | Warren Buffett’s firm recommits to buying BofA stock while selling off other banks

OMAHA, May 16 (AP) – Investor Warren Buffett reinvested in his favorite bank stock, Bank of America, in the first quarter while dumping two others as Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Part of a series of moves in a stock portfolio.

Berkshire provided a quarterly update on its U.S. holdings in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. Because of Buffett’s highly successful investing track record over the decades, many investors are keeping a close eye on the company’s movements.

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Berkshire slightly increased its 179.4 million stake in Bank of America stock, while reducing its long-term holdings in US Bancorp and Bank of New York Mellon. Buffett has pulled some bank investments in recent years, but he continues to support Bank of America.

Berkshire also bought nearly 10 million Capital One shares.

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The quarterly filing doesn’t specify which investments Buffett made and which were made by one of Berkshire’s two other investment managers, but Buffett typically handles all of Berkshire’s largest investments worth $1 billion or more. Buffett does not comment on these stock filings on a regular basis.

Berkshire continued to reduce its stake in Activision Blizzard in the quarter, down from 52.7 million shares at the beginning of the year to 49.4 million shares. Buffett has said he bought the stock as a bet that Microsoft’s takeover of the video game maker will ultimately succeed. While the European Union did back Microsoft’s takeover on Monday, the deal remains in doubt after British regulators rejected the deal and U.S. regulators sued to block it.

Berkshire also cut its investment in GM to 40 million shares from 50 million in the previous quarter.

Monday’s report did not include Berkshire’s biggest investment move of the past year, the sale of more than half of its stake in Chinese electric car maker BYD.

These generate billions in sales for Berkshire Hathaway, which are reported separately on the Hong Kong stock exchange. At the latest update on the investment, Berkshire held about 108 million BYD shares, worth about $3.3 billion.

Until last August, Berkshire Hathaway held 225 million shares it bought in 2008 for $232 million. The value of the BYD investment soared to more than $9.5 billion last summer, before Buffett began selling.

One of Berkshire Hathaway’s other biggest moves this quarter was the sale of about 35 million Chevron shares, giving it a 132.4 million stake in the oil producer, but Berkshire Hathaway already disclosed the move in its quarterly earnings report.

Buffett remains bullish on oil stocks.

Buffett’s biggest acquisition in the past year was Occidental Petroleum stock worth billions of dollars. As previously reported, Berkshire bought an additional 17.4 million shares during the quarter, giving it control of nearly 24% of the oil producer’s stock, or about 211.7 million shares.

Berkshire does hold warrants to buy another 83.9 million Occidental shares, but Buffett told shareholders at Berkshire’s annual meeting earlier this month that he has no plans to buy the entire company.

Berkshire’s largest single investment in Apple stock remained largely unchanged at 915.6 million shares. The Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate did acquire 16.5 million shares of HP, giving it nearly 121 million shares of the printer maker.

Berkshire Hathaway sold off nearly all of its remaining 8.3 million shares in chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Just last fall, Buffett bought 60 million shares of the company, but said he quickly reconsidered the investment based on geopolitical concerns about China.

In addition to its investments, Berkshire directly owns dozens of companies, including Geico Insurance, BNSF Railroad, several large utilities, and various manufacturing and retail businesses such as Precision Castparts, See’s Candy, and NetJets. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the body of content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)