Zinger Brief
- Buffett completed the purchase of Dairy Queen in 1997 for $585 million in a mix of cash and class-A stock.
- Berkshire purchased 50% of Heinz in 2013 for $12.25 billion in a move that Buffett later called "too expensive."
Berkshire Hathaway, headed by CEO Warren Buffett,recently announced the acquisition of Alleghany Corporation, a property and casualty insurance company in a deal worth $11.6 billion, at $842.02 per share.
The acquisition is the largest that Berkshire has made since 2016, but ranks behind its previous $37-billion acquisition of Precision Castparts.
The famed investor is known for taking rather large stakes in companies he feels are undervalued, but shares of common stock isn’t the end of the line for Buffett.
Apart from purchasing millions of shares in innovative companies, Berkshire has completed 54 acquisitions worth nearly $242.76 billion since Buffett took the helm in 1970.
Here is a list of notable companies owned by Berkshire:
GEICO - The green gecko became a part of the Berkshire umbrella in 1995, when Berkshire purchased the company for $2.76 billion.
Helzberg Diamonds- Berkshire purchased Helzberg in 1995, paid in class-A stock worth around $433 million at the time.
Dairy Queen - Buffett completed the purchase of Dairy Queen in 1997 for $585 million in a mix of cash and class-A stock.
See’s Candies - Berkshire purchased See’s Candy in 1972 for $25 million.
Benjamin Moore Paint - In 2000, Berkshire announced its acquisition of Benjamin Moore for $1 billion, at $37.82 per share.
Fruit of The Loom - Berkshire purchased Fruit of the Loom in 2001 for $835 million in cash.
Pampered Chef- Completed in 2002, Berkshire purchased Pampered Chef for a reported $900 million.
Duracell - Berkshire purchased the battery maker in 2014 for $4.7 billion.
Precision Castparts - Completed in 2015, Berkshire purchased Precision for $37.2 billion.
H.J Heinz - Berkshire purchased 50% of Heinz in 2013 for $12.25 billion in a move that Buffett later called "too expensive."
Here's the secret message from Warren Buffett's newest big deals
Warren Buffett has come out of hibernation in March to make some eye-popping deals, sending a clear sign to investors more broadly, says Baird strategist Michael Antonelli.
"Buffett [is] doing Buffett things. I think it reminds me and should remind [everyone] that the world is still spinning. Companies are still planning for the future, and they are still doing the things that make them great companies," Antonelli said on Yahoo Finance Live.
Indeed, Buffett's brain appears to be spinning overtime right now.
The 91-year-old billionaire investor revealed Monday that his Berkshire Hathaway will spend $11.6 billion to buy insurance company Alleghany. The deal will expand Buffett's insurance empire further beyond auto insurance player Geico and reinsurance beast Gen Re (General Reinsurance Corporation).
“Berkshire will be the perfect permanent home for Alleghany, a company that I have closely observed for 60 years," Buffett said in a statement.
Alleghany hauled in more than $12 billion in sales last year and $1.1 billion in net earnings.
Shares of Alleghany skyrocketed 25% on the news. The stock was among the top three trending tickers on Yahoo Finance.
While dipping into the insurance space, Buffett has also gone shopping for energy names amid soaring crude oil prices in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
Buffett scooped up another 18.1 million shares of Occidental for close to $1 billion last week. The latest purchases come hot on the heels of Berkshire spending $6 billion or so in the prior two weeks to buy up Occidental shares.
Berkshire now owns nearly 14.6% of Occidental Petroleum through his roughly 140 million shares.
"What these deals tell me is that animal spirits are still alive," Antonelli adds.
Comments