Berkshire Hathaway was a net buyer of stocks in Q3 to the tune of $3.7B

Kevin Dietsch

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.B), (NYSE:BRK.A) purchased about $9.00B of equities during Q3 2022 and sold about $5.30B of equities, resulting in a net purchase of $3.7B, according to the investment firm's cash flow statement.

Berkshire (BRK.B) B shares rose 1.1% in Monday afternoon trading. In its Q3 results, the insurance, manufacturing, and investment giant posted operating earnings that rose 20% Y/Y, but slipped from Q2. It bought back $1.05B of its own stock and had $109.0B of cash and short-term securities at the end of the quarter, up from $105.4B on June 30.

Part of that buying has been Buffett's increasing stake in Occidental Petroleum (OXY), which climbed to 20.9% by the end of the quarter. In late September, Berkshire (BRK.B) disclosed purchases of 5.99M of OXY shares in several transactions for ~$350M. In August, the company bought 6.68M shares for ~$391M and in July, it acquired 4.3M shares for ~$250M and 1.9M shares for $112M.

Note that in the 10-Q shows the cash flow for the first nine months of 2022. The amount of purchases and sales were calculated by subtracting the amount in the Q3 10-Q from the amount in the Q2 10-Q.

Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) will provide a detailed view of its equity holdings around Nov. 14, the deadline for large funds to disclose their holdings at the end of the Q3. In Q2, the company added to its stakes in Ally Financial (ALL) and Activision Blizzard (ATVI), which is being acquired by Microsoft (MSFT). It sold its stakes in Verizon (VZ) and Royalty Pharma (RPRX).

SA contributor Jonathan Weber points out that Berkshire's (BRK.B) equity portfolio has risen in value since the end of the quarter, "meaning the most recent book value number is too conservative."