Warren Buffett's Berkshire reveals size of Amazon stake
| What Buffett meant by "some" Amazon shares
On the Thursday evening before Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting, Warren Buffett told CNBC's Becky Quick that "one of the fellows in the office that manage money (Todd Combs or Ted Weschler) ... bought some Amazon, so it will show up in the 13F." He wanted to make sure everyone knew the purchase wasn't his decision and he hadn't shed his traditional wariness of tech-oriented stocks. "It's no personality changes taking place." (Some might see his embrace of Apple, and before that, IBM, as evidence that he'd already changed.)
The 13F, a quarterly filing with the SEC showing the publicly-traded U.S. stocks Berkshire owned as of March 31, was released Wednesday.
"Some" Amazon, it turns out, equals 483,300 shares. At today's close, they're worth $903.3 million.
That's a lot of money by most measures, but not that much (0.098%) when compared to Amazon's current market value of $920.2 billion.
Here's the clip from May 2 of Buffett talking about Berkshire's Amazon buy:
These are the other portfolio changes in the 13F. Comparisons are to the previous filing that showed the stocks Berkshire owned as of December 31.
You can always see all of Berkshire's 13F holdings, along with their current market values, at our Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.
Berkshire/Amazon/JPMorgan health venture loses #2 executive
After nine months, Chief Operating Officer Jack Stoddard is leaving Haven, the new health venture created by Berkshire, Amazon, and JPMorgan.
He said the commute from his home in Philadelphia to the non-profit company's headquarters in Boston was taking away too much time from his family.
CNBC.com's Christina Farr writes, "With or without Stoddard, Haven faces some stiff challenges," including a hiring dispute with UnitedHealth Group.
Buffett: "I'll come back and haunt them" if Berkshire leaves Omaha
The Omaha World-Herald spoke to Buffett about his announcement at the annual meeting that Berkshire will be staying in Omaha for at least 20 years after signing a long-term lease for two floors in the building it has occupied for 57 years.
It now has one floor for its 26 employees. At the meeting, Buffett joked of the additional floor, "I just want you to know that your management is loosening up just a little bit," but there are no immediate plans to expand the payroll.
Buffett told the Berkshire-owned World-Herald that "Omaha is consistent with the sort of culture we want to build. As far as I'm concerned, this is the best place. There shouldn't be any reason for Berkshire to move at all."
His prediction and warning: "Berkshire will stay in Omaha. I'll come back and haunt them if it doesn't." BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET
BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH
Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares closed at $306,355 Friday, down 2.8% over the previous four weeks, and up 3.3% from one year ago. Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares closed at $203.27, down 3.2% over the previous four weeks, and up 2.9% from one year ago. The benchmark S&P 500 index closed at 2,859.53, down 1.6% over the previous four weeks, and up 5.1% from one year ago. BERKSHIRE'S TOP STOCK HOLDINGS
Berkshire's top stock holdings by market value, based on today's closing prices. The number of shares held is as of March 31, 2019, as disclosed in the company's May 15 13-F SEC filing.
USG Corporation (USG) was listed in the 13-F filing (39,002,016 shares) but is not included in this table because the stock is no longer trading following the April completion of the company's acquisition by Knauf.
The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.
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