Warren Buffett-led Berkshire Hathaway sharply lowered its exposure in General Motors Co, Merck & Co Inc, AbbVie Inc, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co and added positions in Kroger Inc andAon Plc, in the second quarter, regulatory filings revealed on Monday.
What Happened: The Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate disclosed it has trimmed its position in the legacy automaker GM by 10.44%, as it shed 60 million shares, lowering its total stake in GM to $3.55 billion at the end of June, compared with $3.85 billion a quarter ago.
GM shares, which have risen 27% so far this year, closed 1.3% lower at $52.95 on Monday.
Pharma Exposure Trimmed: The billionaire investor shed nearly half of its position in Merck & Co as it sold 666,398 shares in the pharma company, lowering the total stake to $712 million in the quarter ended June, from $1.38 billion a quarter ago.
Merck shares closed 1.58% higher at $77.93 on Monday.
In Bristol-Myers, Berkshire Hathaway reduced the investment by 15.3% to about 26.3 million shares in the second quarter, lowering the total stake to $1.76 billion from $1.96 billion at the end of the first quarter.
Bristol-Myers shares closed 1.73% higher at $68.7 on Monday and have risen 10.7% since the start of the year.
The veteran investor's firm, which managed assets worth $293 billion in the second quarter, also shed all of its positions in Biogen that was worth about $180 million. It also reduced the investment in AbbVie by 10% to $2.3 billion.
AbbVie shares have risen 10.5% so far this year and closed 1.67% higher at $118.41 on Monday.
The investment firm added about 21% shares in the supermarket chain Kroger, whose shares have jumped about 37% this year. Berkshire Hathaway held about 61.8 million shares, worth $2.37 billion, in Kroger at the end of June.
Kroger shares closed 1.49% higher at $43.45 on Monday.
In Aon, the investment firm added fresh positions, lifting the total stake in the insurance broker to $1.05 billion, from $942.5 million. Aon shares have risen 32.3% so far this year.
The investment firm’s stake in Apple which stands at 886.4 million shares, worth a little over $121 billion, remained unchanged during the quarter.