New Holdings Show Buffett in a Buying Mood

Billionaire Warren Buffett recently wowed investors with the surprise announcement that his firm Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A, BRK-B) would pay $26 billion to acquire the portion of Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNI) it doesn’t already own.

Now, Berkshire’s newly released, end-of-Q3 holdings show where else Buffett has been in a buying mood.

Looking at Buffett’s holdings from the start of Q4, one can see that he is finding value in waste management firm Republic Services (RSG) and food producer Nestle (OTC: NSRGY), where he was opening new stakes during the quarter. He also opened a tiny (for him) new stake in insurer Travelers (TRV).

A number of media outlets are reporting that Buffett also opened a new stake in energy multinational Exxon Mobil (XOM) during the quarter, but in fact, he was adding shares to an existing stake. Berkshire began accumulating the stake during Q2, but as is sometimes the case for the firm, was granted a waiver by the SEC to delay the filing.

Meanwhile, Buffett was also adding to stakes in bank Wells Fargo (WFC) and discount retailer Wal-Mart (WMT).

Looking at tickerspy.com’s graph charting the performance of Berkshire’s end-of-Q3 holdings so far during Q4, Buffett’s holdings have kept pace with the broader market during the recent rally. If you want to see how your performance stacks up to Warren Buffett’s, visit tickerspy.com to see the Oracle of Omaha’s top holdings and a chart of their combined performance.

Pro portfolio performance is based on institutions’ top-15 holdings as disclosed in quarter-end filings with the SEC. Pro performance does not take into account additional holdings beyond the top 15 nor does it include positions that are not required to be disclosed by the SEC. As such, Pro portfolio performance should be considered an approximation and not a precise record of how an institution has performed over time.

Tags: BNI, BRK-A, BRK-B, NSRGY, RSG, TRV, WFC, WMT, XOM