Warren Buffett's Berkshire Sheds Wells Fargo, Chevron Stakes And Buys This Stock Instead

Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) shed nearly all of its investment in banking company Wells Fargo & Co WFC and added stake worth over $900 million in insurance broker Aon Plc AON besides halving stakes in Chevron Corp CVX in the first quarter, regulatory filings revealed on Monday.

What Happened: Warren Buffett-led company owned about $26.4 million of shares in Wells Fargo as of March 31, down from about $1.58 billion in January, according to the filing.

That represents a 98.3% drop in the Wells Fargo stake owned by Berkshire Hathaway to 675,054 shares at the end of the first quarter as against 52.4 million shares a quarter ago.

Berkshire’s quarterly filing shows it also picked 4.09 million shares, worth about $942.56 million, in the Dublin-based insurance company Aon. 

See also: How to Buy Wells Fargo Stock

Buffett’s firm also nearly halved its stake in Chevron, cutting it down to $2.48 billion at the end of the quarter, from $4.1 billion at the beginning of the year, filings show. The financial firm owned about 23.67 million shares of the U.S. energy company at the end of the quarter, down from the 48.49 million it held at the beginning of the year.

Why It Matters: The Nebraska-based company has been shedding its stake in the world’s fourth-largest bank for some time. In September last year, it sold over 100 million shares, lowering its stake by half.

Buffett’s firm started investing in Wells Fargo in 1989 and had at one time built up to a 10% stake in the banking company.

Investors keep a close track of Buffet’s investment path due to his successful record. The ace investor had earlier this month admitted that selling some Apple Inc AAPL stock last year was a mistake.

See Also: Apple CEO Gets Buffett's Praise: Steve Jobs Couldn't Really Do What Tim Cook Has Done 'In Many Respects'

Price Action: Berkshire Hathaway Inc Class A shares closed 0.67% lower at $434,324 on Monday. WFC shares closed 2% higher at $47.90 and were up 0.46% in after-hours. Aon shares closed 0.36% higher at $255.20 and were further up 1.5% in extended hours.

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