Warren Buffett sounded negative about the outlook for
Paramount Global
on two occasions during the second quarter. Were his doubts enough for
Berkshire Hathaway
to sell its stake?
Investors will find out about the fate of the holding in the media company (ticker: PARA) stake and other potential changes in Buffett’s firm’s $350 billion equity portfolio when Berkshire Hathaway (BRK. A, BRK. B) releases its second-quarter 13-F filing. It is expected late Monday.
We do know Berkshire sold more stock than it bought in the second quarter. Berkshire bought about $4.5 billion of shares in the second quarter and sold around $12.5 billion, based on Barron’s reading of its equity purchases and sales in the cash-flow statement of its 10-Q, released on Aug. 5.
Berkshire was a seller of about $1.5 billion of
Chevron
(CVX) in the period, its 10-Q indicates. It likely sold nearly $3 billion of
Activision Blizzard
(ATVI) during the second quarter, based on a recent filing.
The remaining roughly $8 billion of sales should be revealed Monday in the 13-F filing
Berkshire’s largest holdings, Apple (AAPL),
American Express
(AXP),
Coca-Cola
(KO), and
Bank of America
(BAC) didn’t change in the quarter, the 10-Q indicates. This means sales were concentrated in some of Berkshire’s many smaller equity investments, which are run by Buffett as well as investment managers Todd Combs and Ted Weschler.
One sale candidate is Paramount. At the end of the first quarter, Berkshire held 93 million shares, worth about $1.5 billion, of the owner of the CBS TV network and Paramount movie studio. Paramount hasn’t been a winner for Berkshire. Barron’s estimates it paid about double Paramount’s current stock price around $15.
In a CNBC interview in April and at Berkshire’s annual meeting, Buffett sounded downbeat about the company, telling CNBC that “streaming…it’s not really a very good business.” Asked why he bought the stock, Buffett replied: “ Well, we’ll see what happens.” He commented that people working in the entertainment business have done well over time but shareholders generally haven’t.
During the second quarter, Berkshire was a buyer of almost $1 billion of
Occidental Petroleum
(OXY), based on filings, and probably a similar amount of the five Japanese trading companies in which Berkshire now holds about $20 billion in total. The 13-F should detail what Berkshire bought in the second quarter although foreign investments such as the Japanese trading companies generally aren’t included in those reports.
Write to Andrew Bary at [email protected]
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