Warren Buffett made a series of changes to Berkshire Hathaway’s stock portfolio last quarter, including selling large chunks of financial companies and a semiconductor name he just bought, according to a new regulatory filing. The Omaha-based conglomerate reduced its stake in Bank of New York Mellon by 60% in the fourth quarter to a $1.1 billion stake. Meanwhile, it’s also reduced its U.S. stake in Bancorp by 90% to $291 million by the end of 2022. The duo have each sold more than 20% over the past year, slightly underperforming the S&P 500. The filing reflects moves made in the fourth quarter and holdings through the end of 2022. The “Oracle of Omaha” dumped a significant chunk of Taiwan Semiconductor, a chip stock it just bought in the third quarter, making it the 10th-biggest Berkshire’s participation. At the end of 2022, Berkshire owned just 8.3 million shares of the Taiwanese chipmaker’s $618 million American Depositary Receipts, down about 86% sequentially. Chip stock gained nearly 9% in the fourth quarter, but the rebound in the new year was even more dramatic, with shares up over 30% year-to-date. Buffett further reduced his position in Activision Blizzard last quarter, but the bet is still the conglomerate’s ninth-biggest, the filing showed. The investor reduced this position, a merger arbitrage bet, for three straight quarters as regulatory headwinds mounted on the Microsoft acquisition. The 92-year-old investor kept the majority of his top 10 holdings unchanged last quarter. He only slightly added to his gargantuan Apple stake last quarter. The tech giant, by far the conglomerate’s largest holding, was worth $116 billion at the end of 2022 following a nearly 27% sell-off in Apple shares. Meanwhile, Buffett’s stake in Chevron declined marginally last quarter and was valued at $29.3 billion at the end of the fourth quarter, the filing showed. Chevron was still Berkshire’s third-largest holding at the end of 2022.
