Berkshire Hathaway on Friday disclosed a new $2.65 billion investment in Delta Air Lines and a small stake in Macy’s, and said it sold many of its smaller stock holdings including Amazon, UnitedHealth Group and the credit card networks Visa and Mastercard.
The changes were part of a portfolio reshuffling in the first quarter, which followed the promotion of Greg Abel to succeed Warren Buffett as Berkshire’s chief executive.
Berkshire said in a regulatory filing that it also more than tripled its share stake in Google parent Alphabet, which at $16.6 billion has become one of its largest common stock investments.
Berkshire also more than doubled its stake in the New York Times, and now owns about 9% of that company’s stock. The filing contained Omaha, Neb.-based Berkshire’s US-listed stock holdings as of March 31, which comprised most of its $288 billion equity portfolio.
Berkshire bought $15.94 billion and sold $24.09 billion of stocks in the January-to-March period.
Most of the stock sales were likely directed by Abel, who based on prior disclosures inherited most of Berkshire’s equity portfolio including the portion belonging to Todd Combs, a Buffett protege who left in December to join JPMorgan Chase.
Abel said in February he oversaw 94% of Berkshire’s stock holdings, while investment manager Ted Weschler handled 6%.
Berkshire once held an 11% stake in Delta, but sold that stake and similar percentage stakes in American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines in April 2020, early in the pandemic. Buffett said at the time that “the world had changed” for the aviation industry.
Delta is regarded as among the best-run large US airlines. Its shares rose 3.2% in after-hours trading, likely reflecting what investors view as Berkshire’s stamp of approval.
The Atlanta-based airline did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Macy’s shares also got a boost, rising 5.9% after-hours following Berkshire’s disclosure of a 3-million-share stake worth about $55 million.
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