According to regulatory documents, the "stock god" Warren Buffett went on a crazy shopping spree in the US stock market near Christmas and increased his holdings of stocks such as Western Petroleum during a sluggish market.
According to regulatory documents submitted late Thursday (December 19th) local time, Berkshire Hathaway purchased stocks of three companies, Western Petroleum (stock code: OXY), Sirius XM (SIRI), and VeriSign (VRSN), on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
Among them, Berkshire Hathaway increased its holdings of nearly 8.9 million shares of Western Petroleum at a price of $405 million, making its stake in the latter exceed 28%.
In addition, Berkshire Hathaway purchased approximately 5 million shares of Sirius XM for about $113 million and approximately 234000 shares of Verisign for about $45 million.
Analysis suggests that compared to Western oil trading, Sirius XM and Verisign are much smaller in scale, possibly managed by Buffett's investment aides Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, who oversee some of Berkshire's investments.
Overall, Berkshire Hathaway bought stocks worth over $560 million within three days, and Western Petroleum and Sirius XM both bought at recent lows, perhaps indicating that the "stock gods" consider these two to be cheap stocks.
As of press time, the stock price of Western Petroleum has risen by over 5%, but it has still fallen by over 5% this month, reaching a low since March 2022. Sirius XM's performance has been even worse, with the stock rising nearly 10% during the day but falling 57% over the year, hitting a new low since 2012 at one point this month.
Currently, Western Petroleum is Berkshire Hathaway's sixth largest holding, behind Apple, American Express, Bank of America, Coca Cola, and Chevron. Buffett has stated that Berkshire Hathaway has no intention of fully acquiring Western Petroleum.
According to the report submitted last month, Berkshire Hathaway sold net shares for the eighth consecutive quarter, and did not repurchase any shares in the third quarter, marking the first time since 2018. At that time, some analysts believed that Berkshire's accumulation of cash could be a warning signal.
Buffett's recent move may also mean that the "stock god" has reversed market sentiment, and his move to increase holdings in Western oil may represent a potential opportunity for him in the traditional energy sector.
Buffett once mentioned that due to ESG (environmental, social, and governance) issues and investors' indifference towards the traditional energy industry, the value of the oil industry has been undervalued for a long time in the past few decades.
However, as Trump is about to take office, the energy and ESG policies in the United States may face earth shaking changes. Compared to the Biden administration's achievements in promoting ESG disclosure, Trump is clearly opposed to environmental and other related issues.