When the stock market sell-off, Warren Buffett spends Big, Monday 13F form review

The stock market’s selloff has been bad news for most investors. Not for Warren Buffett and his team. 

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has used the stock market slump as an opportunity to more stocks, spending tens of billions of dollars the past few months after ending 2021 with near-record cash on hands. 

Top of the spending lists are:

Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY) 901,768 shares of  5.68%, the move makes Occidental, in which Berkshire began buying shares in late February, one of its 10 biggest holdings, also adding more Chevron Corp. (CVX). Clearly, BH are owning companies that are likely to be an inflation hedge

Betting on Microsoft's merger-arbitrage with Activision Blizzard Inc. (ATVI), bought shares of HP Inc. (HPQ), 55 million shares of Citigroup Inc.(C), Ally Financial Inc. (ALLY).

Berkshire continued to add more shares buy 3.8 million to its position in Apple Inc. (AAPL), which remained its biggest stockholding.

Cutting position 

Meanwhile, it exited its position in Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC).

How do we know what Warren Buffett is buying or selling?

Investors got a look at what Berkshire has been buying as well as what it has been selling when it filed what is known as Form 13F with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday. The SEC requires all institutional investors that manage more than $100 million to file the form within 45 days of the end of each quarter. Because institutions must disclose their equity holdings on the form, as well as the size and market value of each position, investors often use 13Fs to gauge how large money managers are playing in the stock market.

One takeaway from Berkshire’s filing was this

The market’s sell-off has allowed the company to go on a spending spree.

What to expect for the coming months?

With stock volatility remaining elevated, many investors and analysts expect Mr. Buffett, as well as Berkshire portfolio managers Ted Weschler and Todd Combs, to keep putting cash to work in the market over the coming months.

source: The Wall Street Journal 

“This is what I’d consider to be Warren Buffett’s sweet spot,” Mr. Kass said. “The almost wholesale selling in the market has provided Berkshire an opportunity to buy securities at bargain prices.”