Andrew Bary
Berkshire Hathaway took a stake in Domino's Pizza in the third quarter, buying 1.3 million shares that were worth about $550 million on Sept. 30, according to a quarterly form 13-F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission released Thursday after the close of trading.
Domino's is the only sizable new equity holding by Berkshire in the period.
Domino's shares are rising in after-market activity in an apparent reaction to the Berkshire news. The stock is up 7.8% after hours to $469.99 after falling 0.8% to $435.97 in regular trading.
Berkshire also initiated a holding in Pool in the third quarter, buying 404,000 shares worth $152 million on Sept. 30. Pool shares are up almost 6% to $378 in after-hours trading.
The Domino's and Pool stake may have been taken by either Ted Weschler or Todd Combs, two investment managers who work with CEO Warren Buffett in managing Berkshire's $300 billion equity portfolio. Small positions under $1 billion often are their stakes rather than those of Buffett, who likes to focus on stakes of more than $1 billion that can move the needle at the $1 trillion market cap company.
As it did in the first two quarters of 2024, Berkshire was a much bigger seller of stocks than a buyer in the third quarter. Berkshire was a net buyer of just $1.5 billion of stocks in the third quarter while selling about $36 billion, according to its recently released 10-Q report.
Berkshire sold nearly all its stake in Ulta Beauty that it accumulated in the second quarter. It held just 24,000 shares of the cosmetics retailer on Sept. 30, having sold 666,000 shares in the period. Ulta shares are down 4% in after-hours trading at $367.
The rapid buying and selling of stock by Berkshire has become more common in recent years. Some investors buy stocks on the news of a new Berkshire holding, as they did with Ulta in mid-August. That may not be a great move if Berkshire flips the position.
Berkshire sold a million shares of Charter Communications, leaving it with 2.8 million shares. Berkshire exited its entire holding of four million shares of Floor & Decor in the period. It sold 20.7 million shares of Nu Holdings, the Brazilian finance company, leaving it with 86.4 million shares.
Berkshire trimmed its holding of Capital One Financial by 719,000 shares in the third quarter, leaving it with 9.1 million shares.
As previously disclosed by Berkshire, it cut its stake in Apple in the third quarter by 25% to 300 million shares and sold 235 million shares of Bank of America stock, leaving it with about 798 million shares on Sept. 30.
Write to Andrew Bary at andrew.bary@barrons.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 14, 2024 17:08 ET (22:08 GMT)
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