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Warren Buffett
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Berkshire Hathaway
continued to buy more shares of
Occidental Petroleum
in recent days, purchasing a total of about $580 million of stock on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. That lifted its stake in the large energy company to $9.9 billion, according to a filing late Friday.
Berkshire Hathaway
(Ticker BRK/A, BRK/B) now holds 163.4 million shares of
Occidental Petroleum
(OXY), a 17.4% stake, after buying a total of 9.9 million shares from Wednesday through Friday. Berkshire paid in a range of $57 to $60 a share for its latest purchases. Occidental shares gained 2.7% to $60.44 Friday.
Occidental has been the top-performing stock in the S&P 500 so far this year by a wide margin with a gain of 108% through Friday. Berkshire’s purchases have helped drive that advance.
Berkshire CEO Warren Buffett began buying shares in Occidental earlier this year and has rapidly increased Berkshire’s stake since March.
Since mid-June, Berkshire has purchased about 20 million shares. Buffett seems to like buying Occidental shares at a price of $60 or less. Barron’s estimates that Berkshire’s total cost basis for its Occidental stake is around $53 a share, meaning Berkshire now has a paper profit of more than $1 billion.
As a holder of more than 10% of Occidental, Berkshire must disclose trades in the stock within two business days via a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The fresh purchases may fuel speculation that Berkshire will add…
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