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- Manlobbi
Stocks A to Z / Stocks B / Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) ❤
No. of Recommendations: 16
No. of Recommendations: 2
What is driving his consistent sales out of banks, I wonder? I wish I could get inside the logic of that. If it was for a particular bank, that is easier, but it seems like an aggregate portfolio reduction in exposure to the banking sector.
No. of Recommendations: 0
Perhaps an overly stressed consumer.
No. of Recommendations: 3
No. of Recommendations: 9
What is driving his consistent sales out of banks, I wonder?
Who knows?
Warren could have sold a lot more Bank Of America in Q4 than he did, so it is possible his primary goal was to get the position below 10% so he didn't have to file Form 4s publicly. He went far enough below 10% (Berkshire owned 8.865% of BAC at year-end) that he doesn't have to worry about the effects of BAC share repurchases for a while.
Berkshire has approval to own much more of BAC (I think the 2019 approval was for up to 24.9% with certain limits on their commercial relationship and influence) but that doesn't mean he wants to be stuck filing Form 4s within 3 days if he wants to sell shares.
It is possible that the Citi investment was not Warren's. It very well may have been Warren's position but it could also have been Todd Combs' position. I would be very surprised if it were Ted Weschler's position for several reasons. The Citi investment may have just been straight valuation - it was way too cheap, got cheaper, then rose closer to fair value and they started selling. If it was Warren's position I bet it will be completely gone in Q1.
Capital One is Todd Combs. (not disclosed as such but I would bet on it)
No. of Recommendations: 2
COF and C are Buffett's .COF is also a favorite of board director Chris Davis. C and COF are too big for Ted and Todd as they were purchased in the multi-billions too.
No. of Recommendations: 14
COF and C are Buffett's .COF is also a favorite of board director Chris Davis. C and COF are too big for Ted and Todd as they were purchased in the multi-billions too.
Well I disagree with you about Capital One but like I said you may be correct about Citi. Jane Fraser mentioned speaking with Buffett a few times, FWIW.
But 12.5 million shares of COF at $100 a share is not too large a position for Todd Combs and he is an expert on Capital One.
Warren and Todd both use the same broker to execute their trades - WallachBeth Capital - so it is hard to tell which trades belong to Warren vs Todd if they are not obvious by their size. Ted Weschler almost always uses Glenn Eagle Wealth so it is easier to tell which trades are his.
Ted and Todd manage a lot of capital these days. I'm not sure how much but a lot of it is the subsidiary pension funds and not BRK shareholder capital - half the DaVita is pension fund money for instance. They are also not subject to any limits on concentration - they can put their entire portfolios in one stock if they wanted to. Just like Warren would want if their positions were reversed.