A look at Warren Buffett's third-quarter holdings
Posted
Nov 18 2008, 08:51 AM
by
Douglas McIntyre
Rating:
As of the end of the third quarter, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway had significant holdings in almost 40 major U.S. companies.
Buffett lightened up his ownership in a small number of public firms compared to what he held in the second quarter. Most notable was a reduction in his piece of Carmax. The used car company is being hammered by rising unemployment and lack of consumer credit availability. Its shares have lost 70% of their value over the last year.
Buffett's position in Bank of America also fell from nine million shares in June to five million in the most recent period. Since the bank's stock is off 55% over the last six months, the reduction in exposure turned out to be a good call. Buffett also cut his stakes in Home Depot and Lowe's moving him out of companies with significant risks tied to housing.
Buffett's commitment to low cost products that nearly every consumer needs to buy remained solid. He now owns a 148 million share piece of Kraft and a 106 million share position in Procter & Gamble. Buffett also owns 200 million shares in Coca Cola.
In this market, even the Oracle of Omaha is going to lose money on a lot of his holdings, but it looks like he dumped the dogs.
Top Stocks blogger Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 24/7 Wall St.
Related reading:
A complete list of Buffett's Q3 holdings
Buffett's bailout win
The Buffett backlash
