What Buffett meant by "some" Amazon shares

On the Thursday evening before Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting, Warren Buffett told CNBC's Becky Quick that “one of the fellows in the office that manage money (Todd Combs or Ted Weschler) ... bought some Amazon, so it will show up in the 13F.” He wanted to make sure everyone knew the purchase wasn't his decision and he hadn't shed his traditional wariness of tech-oriented stocks. "It’s no personality changes taking place." (Some might see his embrace of Apple, and before that, IBM, as evidence that he'd already changed.)

The 13F, a quarterly filing with the SEC showing the publicly-traded U.S. stocks Berkshire owned as of March 31, was released Wednesday.

"Some" Amazon, it turns out, equals 483,300 shares. At today's close, they're worth $903.3 million.

That's a lot of money by most measures, but not that much (0.098%) when compared to Amazon's current market value of $920.2 billion. 

Here's the clip from May 2 of Buffett talking about Berkshire's Amazon buy:

These are the other portfolio changes in the 13F. Comparisons are to the previous filing that showed the stocks Berkshire owned as of December 31.

• Charter Communications: 5,710,711 shares, a reduction of 1,322,788 shares (-18.8%)
   
  
• Delta Air Lines: 70,910,456 shares, an increase of 5,375,456 shares (+8.2%) [Previously disclosed]
  
  
• JPMorgan Chase: 59,514,932 shares, an increase of 9,398,538 shares (+18.8%)
  
  
• Phillips 66: 5,552,715 shares, a reduction of 6,343,127 shares (-53.3%)
  
  
• PNC Financial Services: 8,671,054 shares, an increase of 407,992 shares (+4.9%)
  
  
• Red Hat: 5,110,471 shares, an increase of 934,679 shares (+22.4%) [At less than $1B in value, and a software company to boot, this stake is almost certainly a portfolio manager position]
  
  
• Southwest Airlines: 53,649,213 shares, a reduction of 1,198,186 shares (-2.2%) [Berkshire's stake is currently just under 10%, and this reduction appears to be a move to avoid going over 10% as Southwest buys back shares - a self-imposed limit Buffett notably broke through with Delta.]
  
  
• Verizon: Elimination of an extremely small 928 share stake, worth around $54 thousand. (Yes, that's thousands.)
  
  
• Wells Fargo: 409,803,773 shares, a reduction of 16,965,129 shares (-4.0%) [Here again, Berkshire may be trying to stay under a 10% stake.]

You can always see all of Berkshire's 13F holdings, along with their current market values, at our Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.

Berkshire/Amazon/JPMorgan health venture loses #2 executive

After nine months, Chief Operating Officer Jack Stoddard is leaving Haven, the new health venture created by Berkshire, Amazon, and JPMorgan.

He said the commute from his home in Philadelphia to the non-profit company's headquarters in Boston was taking away too much time from his family.

CNBC.com's Christina Farr writes, "With or without Stoddard, Haven faces some stiff challenges," including a hiring dispute with UnitedHealth Group. 

Buffett: "I'll come back and haunt them" if Berkshire leaves Omaha

The Omaha World-Herald spoke to Buffett about his announcement at the annual meeting that Berkshire will be staying in Omaha for at least 20 years after signing a long-term lease for two floors in the building it has occupied for 57 years.

It now has one floor for its 26 employees. At the meeting, Buffett joked of the additional floor, "I just want you to know that your management is loosening up just a little bit," but there are no immediate plans to expand the payroll.

Buffett told the Berkshire-owned World-Herald that “Omaha is consistent with the sort of culture we want to build. As far as I’m concerned, this is the best place. There shouldn’t be any reason for Berkshire to move at all.”

His prediction and warning: “Berkshire will stay in Omaha. I’ll come back and haunt them if it doesn’t.”

BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET

• The Wall Street Journal thinks "Buffett Waded Into Amazon at a Dangerous Stretch"
  
  
• The UK's Money Week warns "don’t bet on a Buffett bounce" for Berkshire
  
  
• CNBC's MakeIt discusses Buffett's "simple test for making tough decisions."

• MacRumours reports "Apple's New Warren Buffett Game Pulled From App Store Outside of United States"
  
  
• MarketsInsider thinks "Warren Buffett was wrong about the trade war" with China
  
  
• The Motley Fool has a podcast episode analyzing Berkshire's Q1 operating earnings, with a focus on its railroad, energy companies, and utilities.
  
  
• Barron's argues that the valuation of a PE deal for a low-cost airline indicates "American and United Could Be Worth a Lot More," and reminds us that Berkshire has some big airline holdings.

BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH

Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares closed at $306,355 Friday, down 2.8% over the previous four weeks, and up 3.3% from one year ago.

Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares closed at $203.27, down 3.2% over the previous four weeks, and up 2.9% from one year ago.

The benchmark S&P 500 index closed at 2,859.53, down 1.6% over the previous four weeks, and up 5.1% from one year ago.

BERKSHIRE'S TOP STOCK HOLDINGS 

Berkshire's top stock holdings by market value, based on today's closing prices. The number of shares held is as of March 31, 2019, as disclosed in the company's May 15 13-F SEC filing.

USG Corporation (USG) was listed in the 13-F filing (39,002,016 shares) but is not included in this table because the stock is no longer trading following the April completion of the company's acquisition by Knauf.

The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.

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