OMAHA, Neb.—Warren Buffett’s company unloaded a number of the smaller investments from its portfolio in the third quarter including General Motors, Mondelez, and Johnson & Johnson.
Berkshire Hathaway filed a quarterly update on its $313 billion portfolio with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Tuesday.
But the story of this quarter might be what’s not in the report because Berkshire got permission from regulators to exclude one or more holdings while it is making changes to them. Those investments will be disclosed later after Berkshire does its buying.
Many investors like to follow the changes in Berkshire’s portfolio because they want to see Mr. Buffett’s latest investment decisions, although some of the smaller changes made each quarter are likely the work of one of Berkshire’s two other stock pickers. The filing doesn’t make clear which decisions Buffett made and Berkshire doesn’t comment on these, but Mr. Buffett generally handles all investments worth $1 billion or more.
The only new investments revealed in the report was a nearly $8 million stake in Atlanta Braves Holdings and a $44 million Sirius XM investment.
Mr. Buffett has long been a baseball fan and once owned part of the local minor league franchise in his hometown of Omaha. But the Braves were spun off from one of Berkshire’s other holdings, Liberty Media, over the summer, so that’s likely where Berkshire picked up the shares.
Berkshire got rid of its investments in Procter & Gamble, UPS, and Celanese Corp.
At the same time, Berkshire also trimmed its holdings in Chevron, HP, Globe Life, and Markel though it had been previously disclosed in other filings that Mr. Buffett’s company was selling some of its Chevron and HP shares.
Berkshire didn’t touch its biggest investments in Apple, Bank of America, Coca-Cola, and American Express.
Besides stocks, Berkshire owns an eclectic mix of dozens of businesses including Geico insurance, BNSF railroad, several major utilities, and an assortment of manufacturing and retail companies.
