Over the weekend, investors from around the world gathered in Omaha at the annual Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, Financial) (BRK.B, Financial) shareholder meeting for the first time since 2019. Over the past two years, the forum has been held virtually due to the pandemic.
Attendees gathered for hours to listen to the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett (Trades, Portfolio), and his business partner, Charlie Munger (Trades, Portfolio) speak about multiple topics, from the state of the global economy to the stock market and the political environment.
However, possibly the most interesting information concerned Berkshire's recent stock trading activity.
Berkshire goes bargain hunting
At the meeting, Buffett revealed that he had been buying significant amounts of stock over the past couple of months, deploying some of the conglomerate's massive cash pile to take advantage of attractive investment opportunities in the market.
We already knew that he had been more active following a spate of recent large deals, including acquiring a more significant stake in Occidental Petroleum (OXY, Financial) and the acquisition of the insurance group Allegheny (Y, Financial).
And as it turns out, the conglomerate has been even more active behind the scenes. Berkshire deployed an impressive $41 billion into stocks over the past quarter.
The numbers in the company's quarterly report, published just before the annual meeting began, provided more color on the buying and selling activity. For the first quarter of 2022, Berkshire spent a net $41 billion in equities, buying $51 billion worth of stock and selling $10 billion. In comparison, in both 2020 and 2021, the conglomerate was a net seller of equities overall.
And as it dived into the market, its massive cash reserve declined from $147 billion at the end of 2021 to $106 billion. That's a decline of 28%.
We will have to wait until the conglomerate publishes its 13F report with the SEC to see precisely which positions it was buying during the first three months of 2022. These reports are filed 45 days after the end of each calendar quarter, so it will be a few more weeks before we have the exact details.
However, Berkshire's 13F for the fourth quarter of 2021 showed that the group had increased its holdings in financial equities and industrial stocks; it's possible that it has continued this trend, though this is just pure speculation on my part.
Berkshire's annual letter also disclosed that the group owned $26 billion of Chevron (CVX, Financial) stock at the end of March. That's compared to just $4.5 billion three months earlier, suggesting that Buffett has been spending big bucks on increasing his ownership interest of this energy giant.
The billionaire investor also revealed that Berkshire has been further building its position in Apple (AAPL, Financial). Already the largest position in the conglomerate's portfolio, Buffett admitted he made a mistake in 2020 when he decided to reduce the holding marginally.
"We actually bought a little more Apple in the first quarter, and Apple bought out some of the other shareholders," Buffett said, during a discussion about the value of stock buybacks in the meeting over the weekend.
Buybacks dwindling
Talking of stock buybacks, it looks as if the prevalence of other bargains in the market has caused Berkshire to slow the repurchasing of its own stock. According to its quarterly report, the conglomerate spent $3.2 billion on buybacks during the first three months of 2022, compared to $6 billion in each of the previous five quarters.
That's the lowest level of spending since 2020. Buffett has previously remarked that he will only use Berkshire's cash to repurchase its own shares when no other opportunities are available.
Considering the fact that he has found opportunities to the tune of $41 billion over the past three months, it looks to me as if he believes there is better value to be found elsewhere in the market today.
