11/14/13, "Berkshire Acquires $3.7 Billion Exxon Mobil Stake," Bloomberg, By Noah Buhayar & Joe Carroll
"Berkshire Hathaway Inc. reported a stake in Exxon Mobil Corp. valued at about $3.7 billion as Warren Buffett’s company disclosed its largest new holding since adding International Business Machines Corp. in 2011.
Buffett’s company owned 40.1 million shares of Exxon on Sept. 30, Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire said today in a regulatory filing. The world’s biggest oil company by market value closed at $93.22 today in New York. It rose to $93.90 in extended trading at 5:14 p.m., after the filing.
Berkshire has benefited this year as its stock picks rallied along with the broader market, affirming a strategy of favoring equities instead of bonds amid near record-low interest rates. Buffett has tracked Exxon and bought its stock in the past, holding a stake in the Irving, Texas-based energy producer as recently as 2011.
Exxon Mobil “is undervalued, in his opinion, and pretty much being ignored by the market,” said David Kass, a professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business who has taken students to meet Buffett in Omaha. “He knows the company. He knows it well.”
About three-quarters of the Exxon holding was added in the three months ended June 30, according to a separate filing today. Berkshire requested confidential treatment in an August filing listing its holdings at the end of the second quarter. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sometimes allows companies to withhold information from the public to limit copycat investing while they build or cut a position....
Buffett, Berkshire’s chairman and chief executive officer for more than four decades, has had successes and blunders betting on energy. He booked profits in 2007 as he sold stock in PetroChina Co. after the shares rose more than eightfold since Berkshire’s $488 million investment in 2003.
In 2009, Berkshire posted its worst quarterly loss in at least two decades, fueled by a charge on the decline of oil producer ConocoPhillips. Buffett said he made a major mistake investing in the company with oil prices near their peak.
Berkshire cut its stake in ConocoPhillips by 44 percent in the three months ended Sept. 30 to 13.5 million shares, today’s filing showed.
Buffett’s track record of compounding shareholders’ money earned him a following among investors. Quarterly filings listing Berkshire’s U.S. stock holdings are studied by mutual funds and individuals looking for clues about his strategy.
Two years ago, Buffett disclosed he had spent more than $10 billion accumulating shares of IBM. Buffett calls Berkshire’s investments in the computer-services company, Coca-Cola Co., Wells Fargo & Co. and American Express Co. his “big four.” Each was valued at more than $10 billion at the end of September."
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