‘Buffett is crazy about buying stocks, like buying kitchen stuff.’
Berkshire Hathaway Inc revealed the purchase of 121 million shares of HP Inc in a series of giant investments by conglomerate company owned by billionaire Warren Buffett.
The purchase means Bershire owns an 11.4% stake in HP, equivalent to US $ 4.2 billion based on the computer and printing company's closing price of $ 34.91.
As a result, HP shares jumped 9.9% to $ 38.38 in an hour during the trading session after Berkshire filed a filing with the United States (US) Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
As of Jan. 31, HP owned a total of 1.06 billion surplus shares.
For the record, this is Berkshire’s 3rd largest investment after Buffett noted that ‘internal opportunities provide better returns than takeovers’ and are more ‘exciting’ in the equity market.
Earlier, Bershire had bought an insurance company, Alleghany Corp. for $ 11.6 billion in cash to augment the portfolio of insurers including Geico.
Then in March, Berkshire disclosed a total of 14.6% stake in Occidental Petroleum Corp, which cost more than $ 6 billion.
Meanwhile, Berkshine did not disclose whether Buffett or his portfolio managers, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler were responsible for HP’s interests.
What is known is that Buffett was responsible for Berkshire’s stake in Apple Inc until he dubbed the iPhone maker one of the ‘Big Four’ companies that accounted for a large portion of its conglomerate’s value.
In addition to Apple, the other ‘Big Four’ are Bekrshire insurers, BNSF railways and Berkshire Hathaway Energy.
