This article is part of a series that provides an ongoing analysis of the changes made to Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F stock portfolio on a quarterly basis. It is based on Warren Buffett’s regulatory 13F Form filed on 08/14/2019. Please visit our Tracking 10 Years Of Berkshire Hathaway's Investment Portfolio article series for an idea on how his holdings have progressed over the years and our previous update for the moves in Q1 2019.
During Q2 2019, Berkshire Hathaway’s (NYSE:BRK.A) (NYSE:BRK.B) 13F stock portfolio value increased ~4% from $199B to $208B. The top five positions account for ~65% of the portfolio: Apple Inc., Bank of America, Coca Cola, Wells Fargo, and American Express. There are 44 individual stock positions many of which are minutely small compared to the overall size of the portfolio.
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Note: In H1 2019, Berkshire Hathaway repurchased ~10.45M Class B Equivalent Shares for a total outlay of $2.1B. The average price paid was ~$201. Book Value as of Q2 2019 was ~$157 per share. So, the repurchase happened at ~128% of Book Value. In July 2018, Berkshire had announced a plan to make their re-purchase criteria to be more flexible – instead of the 120% of Book Value criteria, Buffett & Munger had to agree that Berkshire was trading below intrinsic value. The Class B shares currently trade at ~$196.
New Stakes:
None.
Stake Disposals:
USG Corporation (USG): USG was a very long-term holding and there was a significant 21.39M share stake increase in Q4 2013 due to conversion of notes at $11.40 per share - Berkshire acquired the convertible notes during the financial crisis (2/2009) and USG opted to redeem them on 12/16/2013. In March 2018, USG board rejected a $42 per
