Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway bought Domino's Pizza and Pool Corp. for the first time in the third quarter, while selling Apple and Bank of America. Pool stock rose on Friday while DPZ stock reversed lower.
Details about Berkshire's Q3 stock purchases and sales came in a 13F regulatory filing on Thursday after the markets closed.
Berkshire's Q3 Stock Buys And Sells
Investors already knew from previous filings that billionaire investor Buffett sold two of his largest and long-held holdings in Q3: Apple and Bank of America.
Apple remains among Berkshire's biggest holdings after hefty cuts this year. Buffett still owns 300 million shares of the iPhone maker.
In Q3, Berkshire bought about 1.28 million Domino's Pizza shares worth $549.3 million as of Sept. 30, according to filings tracked by whalewisdom.com. The Buffett-led conglomerate purchased around 404,000 shares of Pool, a distributor of swimming pool supplies, worth about $152.3 million at end of September.
Pool stock pared gains to less than 1% in Friday's stock market action. Domino's stock turned lower, losing 1.2%.
Among other notable Q3 moves, Berkshire Hathaway grew its position in Heico, a jet engine supplier in which it opened a stake in the second quarter.
Over that period, Berkshire almost gutted its position in Ulta Beauty, reducing shares by 96.5%, and also hacked a stake in Nu Holdings, a rapidly growing Brazilian digital bank, by 19%. The company exited Floor & Decor entirely.
Warren Buffett Sours On Stocks
Buffett remained a net seller of stocks in the third quarter, selling aggressively into strength as the stock markets rose.
In Q3, Berkshire sold a net $34.6 billion worth of publicly traded stocks. The company bought $1.5 billion of stocks while selling $36.1 billion.
All told, Buffett has been a net seller of stocks for eight consecutive quarters.
Buffett was asked at a May annual shareholders meeting why Berkshire was maintaining its massive cash position — now $325 billion — rather than deploying it. Buffett replied: "I don't think anybody sitting at this table has any idea of how to use it effectively, and therefore we don't use it. … We only swing at pitches we like."
Berkshire Hathaway Stock Portfolio
Investors track Berkshire Hathaway's stock portfolio because of its superior long-term returns. Changes are notable because Warren Buffett tends to hold stocks for years or even decades.
Class B shares of Berkshire Hathaway edged higher on the stock market today. Berkshire stock slumped below the 50-day moving average in early November on disappointing Q3 earnings.
But BRKB stock has now regained the 50-day line. It is up 32% so far this year.
