Berkshire Hathaway
bought nearly $130 million of
Occidental Petroleum
stock in recent days, according to a filing late Monday, as CEO Warren Buffett continued to add to his company’s big stake in the energy producer.
Berkshire Hathaway (ticker: BRK.A, BRK.B) purchased nearly 2.2 million shares of Occidental (OXY) stock Thursday, Friday, and Monday at prices in the range of $56 to $58 a share. Occidental shares finished Monday at $58.52, up 0.7%. They were 0.5% higher in premarket trading Tuesday.
Berkshire now holds 213.9 million shares of Occidental, or 24% of the big oil-and-gas company. The stake is valued at more than $12 billion.
Since Berkshire began accumulating stock in Occidental in early 2022, there was speculation that Buffett might want to buy the whole company. But he said recently at Berkshire’s annual meeting that he doesn’t seek control of the company.
Buffett did say that Berkshire might buy more Occidental and Berkshire has generally preferred to pay less than $60 a share for Occidental stock. Barron’s estimates that Berkshire’s cost is in the low- to mid-50s.
Berkshire also owns more than $9 billion of Occidental 8% preferred stock and warrants to buy the energy company’s stock.
Write to Andrew Bary at andrew.bary@barrons.com
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