In the latest filing of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett’s previous position in ConocoPhillips (
COP,
Financial) did not show up. This makes us Buffett followers wonder what he did to the stock.
The filing said this about ConocoPhillips: "Confidential information has been omitted from the Form 13F and filed separately with the Commission. Included in the confidential filing is information regarding Berkshire Hathaway's position in ConocoPhillips. At March 31, 2008, shares held in ConocoPhillips were included in Berkshire Hathaway's public Form 13F."
Did Buffett buy more COP, or just sold it out?
According to the latest quarterly reports of Berkshire Hathaway, during the first half of 2008, Warren Buffett bought $5.5 billion of stocks, $1.5 billion of that was purchased during the first quarter. Also Warren Buffett sold more than $1.6 billion of stocks during the second quarter.
The sale of $1.6 billion is mostly from the reduction of AnheuserBusch Companies Inc (
BUD,
Financial). Berkshire had about 35 million shares at the first quarter. He sold about two thirds of it, which is worth about 1.3 billion, close to the dollar amount of sale he reported.
We know that Berkshire Hathaway Buys NRG Energy Inc., Adds to IngersollRand Company Ltd. and SanofiAventis during the second quarter. However, these three positions are all insignificant in Berkshire’s equity portfolio. The new purchases in all of them are worth less than $300 million. So there is an additional purchase of $3.7 billion he did not report. This can well be ConocoPhillips.
Berkshire started to buy ConocoPhillips in the first quarter of 2006. It holds 17.5 million shares of COP at the end of first quarter, worth $1.3 billion. If our guess is true, Buffett had quadrupled the position during the second quarter. This is the history of Berkshire with its position in COP.
| Quarter ended on | Value ($1000) | Shares ( Split adjusted) | Quarter End Share Price ( Split adjusted) |
| 20080331 | 1,334,338 | 17,508,700 | $ 76.21 |
| 20071231 | 1,546,018 | 17,508,700 | $ 88.3 |
| 20070930 | 1,536,739 | 17,508,700 | $ 87.77 |
| 20070630 | 1,408,141 | 17,938,100 | $ 78.5 |
| 20070331 | 1,226,069 | 17,938,100 | $ 68.35 |
| 20061231 | 1,290,646 | 17,938,100 | $ 71.95 |
| 20061231 | 1,290,646 | 17,938,100 | $ 71.95 |
| 20060930 | 1,067,855 | 17,938,100 | $ 59.53 |
| 20060630 | 1,175,484 | 17,938,100 | $ 65.53 |
| 20060331 | 1,132,791 | 17,938,100 | $ 63.15 |
With Warren Buffett’s recent interest in oil, we think that this is a reasonable guess. But is COP a Warren Buffett stock? Compared with other oil giants like Exxon (
XOM,
Financial) or Chevron (
CVX,
Financial), ConocoPhillips seems to have a lower valuation. ConocoPhillips was the only energy stock Berkshire owned before.
Warren Buffett has been busy shopping, mostly in fixed maturity securities. He has spent $26 billion so far this year on fixed maturity securities, $16 billion in the second quarter alone. The recent financial market crisis certainly created a lot of opportunities for him. Some of the money is spent on the reported Mars-Wrigley Deal and Dow Chemical- Rohm & Haas deal.
