Berkshire Hathaway has bought 2.1 million shares of Occidental Petroleum in recent days, taking its stake in the energy giant to just over 25%, according to a filing late Wednesday.
Berkshire Hathaway (Tickers: BRK.A, BRK.B) now owns 224.1 million shares of Occidental Petroleum (OXY), a position worth about $12.9 billion based on Wednesday’s closing price.
Occidental…
Berkshire Hathaway has bought 2.1 million shares of Occidental Petroleum in recent days, taking its stake in the energy giant to just over 25%, according to a filing late Wednesday.
Berkshire Hathaway (Tickers: BRK.A, BRK.B) now owns 224.1 million shares of Occidental Petroleum (OXY), a position worth about $12.9 billion based on Wednesday’s closing price.
Occidental shares were up 0.6% in the session at $57.46. Berkshire now owns 25.1% of Occidental.
Berkshire paid an average of just over $57 per share for recent purchases. Berkshire CEO Warren Buffett has steadily increased his company’s stake in Occidental this year, but said at Berkshire’s annual meeting in May that he doesn’t seek control of the company. Buffett said at the time that he admired Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub, who was pursuing one of the most ambitious and innovative carbon capture strategies in the energy industry. Barron’s recently included Hollub in its list of top CEOs of 2023.
The filing also states that Occidental recently repurchased approximately $160 million of Berkshire’s 8% of preferred stock for a 10% premium. Berkshire now owns about $9.2 billion in preferred stock. Occidental repaid $800 million of this preferential issue this year. Occidental is looking to repay the expensive preference it issued to Berkshire in 2019.
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In addition to Occidental’s common and preferred stock, Berkshire owns nearly 84 million warrants to purchase the energy company’s common stock at just under $60 per share.
Buffett is happy to pay less than $60 a share for Occidental common stock, and the drop in oil prices has allowed him to amass more shares at what he considers attractive prices. Occidental was trading at around $75 earlier in the year when oil prices were higher.
Write to Andrew Bary at [email protected]