On November 14th Eastern Time, Berkshire Hathaway, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett, submitted its latest 13F position statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
According to the 13F file for the third quarter, Berkshire sold $7 billion worth of stocks and only bought $1.7 billion worth of stocks in the third quarter. The concentration of the top ten holdings reached 91.93%, while Apple remains the largest holding stock, accounting for 50% of total assets. Specifically, Berkshire purchased a total of 4 new stocks, reduced its holdings of 7 stocks, and also cleared 7 stocks in the third quarter. The two most closely watched stocks on the clearance list are Activision Blizzard and General Motors.
An interesting detail is that SOROS FUND MANAGENT, a fund under Soros, bought 3 million shares of Activision Blizzard in the third quarter, making it the third largest US stock heavyweight.
In addition, Tiger Global Fund's top selling individual stock in the third quarter was JD.com, while also establishing positions in Alibaba and Pinduoduo. In the third quarter, the institution's top increase in holdings was in the Singapore Internet Mobile Platform SEA, followed by Nvidia. Casey Wood, who became famous for her single bet on Tesla, sold 760000 shares of Tesla in the third quarter.
Clearance of General Motors and Activision Blizzard
As of the end of September, Berkshire's total holdings in US stocks were $313.257 billion, a slight decrease from the previous quarter's $348.194 billion. Due to the overall decline of the US stock market in the third quarter, and Berkshire's comprehensive clearance of positions in General Motors and Activision Blizzard in the third quarter, the value of its US stock holdings also shrank for the first time after rising for two consecutive quarters.
Overall, Buffett bought a total of 4 new stocks, reduced his holdings of 7 stocks, and also cleared 7 stocks out of all US stock holdings. The clearance list includes Activision Blizzard, General Motors, Celanese, an engineering plastic production company, food manufacturer Yizi International, Johnson&Johnson, Procter&Gamble, and UPS Class B stocks.
Previously, Berkshire reduced its Activision Blizzard holdings by 70% in the second quarter, pushing it out of its top ten positions. In the third quarter, Buffett further cleared all remaining 14.65 million shares.
Microsoft finally took Activision Blizzard into its pocket in October of this year. For investing in Activision Blizzard, Buffett had previously considered this to be an opportunity for mergers and acquisitions arbitrage trading - although the earliest position building was before the news of the acquisition (in the fourth quarter of 2021), it was not until Microsoft publicly announced its acquisition of Blizzard that Berkshire began to make significant purchases. Buffett believed that the stock price of Activision Blizzard, which was only over $60 before the announcement of the merger, was too different from Microsoft's acquisition price of $95 per share, making it worth investing in. In the end, this transaction also benefited him greatly.
An interesting detail is that SOROS FUND MANAGENT, a fund under Soros, bought 3 million shares of Activision Blizzard in the third quarter, making it the third largest US stock heavyweight.
In addition to Activision Blizzard, Berkshire also fully liquidated its 22 million shares of General Motors in the third quarter. Market views speculate that Berkshire's motivation for selling the stock may be the threat of strikes facing the automotive industry. At the shareholders' meeting in May this year, Buffett stated that the automotive manufacturing industry has too many competitors globally to generate attractive returns.
In terms of reducing holdings, Buffett reduced his holdings of over 12.87 million shares of Chevron in the third quarter, with other relatively smaller stocks including Amazon and HP.
Holding a huge amount of cash and building a small position of 1.7 billion US dollars
Berkshire held record cash reserves in the third quarter, so there was almost no buying activity in the newly established positions, only buying $1.7 billion in stocks, including Liberty Media Corp. and Sirius XM Holdings, an audio entertainment company.
In addition, Berkshire has made a small investment in Atlanta Warriors Holdings. According to public information, Atlanta Warriors Holdings operates through its wholly-owned subsidiary, which is the owner and operator of The Battery Atlanta, a major league baseball club and comprehensive real estate development project for the Atlanta Warriors. It is also the operator of the Atlanta Warriors Major League Baseball Stadium Trust Park.
Since 2023, Berkshire has been a net seller of stocks, with a total profit of approximately $23.6 billion from stock sales in the first three quarters. The third quarter report showed that most of Berkshire's cash reserves eventually turned into short-term U.S. treasury bond bonds, helping Berkshire accumulate a record $157 billion in cash.
Tiger Global Fund reduced its holdings in JD by 53% in the third quarter and established positions in Alibaba and Pinduoduo
In addition to Berkshire, Tiger Global Fund also disclosed the 13F file on Tuesday local time. As of the end of the third quarter, the total market value of Tiger Global's holdings had risen to $13.6 billion, an increase of $1.6 billion compared to the previous report.
In the third quarter, the fund's top selling individual stock was JD.com, with a total of 11.21 million shares sold, accounting for 53% of the reduction. At the same time, it established positions in Alibaba and Pinduoduo, buying nearly 1.5 million and 1.37 million shares respectively. Tiger Global's top increase in holdings in the third quarter was in Singapore's internet mobile platform SEA, followed by NVIDIA, with an increase of 247% and 76.8%, respectively.
Among the top five heavyweight stocks, META still ranks first, holding approximately 8.9 million shares, accounting for 19.69% of the investment portfolio. Microsoft ranks second with approximately 6.13 million shares, accounting for 14.27% of the investment portfolio. Apollo ranked third, holding approximately 12.29 million shares, accounting for 8.13% of the investment portfolio. Take Two interactive software and Google A ranked fourth and fifth respectively, with market capitalization of $738 million and $698 million respectively, accounting for 5.44% and 5.15% of the investment portfolio.
"Wooden Sister" Sells Tesla Significantly
Casey Wood, nicknamed "Sister Wood," became famous in 2020 due to her heavy holdings in Tesla. Her ARK Investment raised Tesla's target stock price for 2027 to $2000 per share this year, an increase of about 10 times the current stock price.
However, according to the latest US stock holdings document 13F by ARK Investment, "Wood Sister" sold Tesla significantly in the third quarter. According to market value, Tesla was the stock that ARK Investment reduced its holdings the most in the third quarter, selling 760000 shares and reducing its position by 16%. As of the end of the reporting period, ARK Investment's shareholding in Tesla had decreased to 4.08 million shares, with a market value of $1 billion. Although it is still the top heavy holding stock of the "Wood Sister" US stock market, its market value of holdings in Tesla in ARK investment has dropped from 8.39% in the middle of this year to 7.81%.
In an interview with foreign media earlier, "Mu Jie" explained the reason for selling Tesla. She stated that when Tesla's stock price rises relative to other holdings, it will reduce its holdings and allocate them to other companies. This reduction is also partly due to Musk's macroeconomic concerns expressed during the recent Tesla earnings conference call.
She added that as long as ARK's judgment on "autonomous taxis" is correct, Tesla shares will always be among the fund's top five holdings. ARK Investment previously expressed the view that the currently struggling robot taxi industry will generate approximately $10 trillion in revenue by 2030, with Tesla leading the market.
In addition to Tesla, "Wood Sister" made a significant reduction in its heavy holdings of technology stocks in the third quarter: selling off the Bitcoin Exchange Coinbase, streaming platform Roku, e-commerce company Shopify, and sports betting company DraftKings, which are currently in litigation. At the same time, we have purchased many cutting-edge technology companies, including Roblox, known as the "first stock of the metaverse," Archer Aviation, an electric aircraft company, Palantir, a global big data leader, and Pacific Biosciences, a third-generation sequencing technology development company.