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Buffett wants Fed OK to buy more Bank of America shares Berkshire Hathaway has asked the Federal Reserve for permission to raise its Bank of America stake above 10%, the level at which regulators start asking questions about whether a shareholder has control, or wants control, over a bank.
Berkshire did not say how many shares it wants to buy or when it might do the buying, but did say it plans to remain a passive investor.
Bloomberg quotes Berkshire's filing as saying the company “may decide to purchase additional shares of common stock of Bank of America based on its evaluation of the investment opportunity presented by such purchases.” (Emphasis added.)
Berkshire's current 10% stake consists of just under 950 million BofA shares with a market value of almost $29 billion. It's the company's second largest stock holding behind its $59B Apple stake.
Bank of America shares rallied Tuesday after Bloomberg first reported the filing, and got another boost from a surprisingly strong earnings report on Wednesday.
The Wall Street Journal says BofA's "deployment of bankers around the country to court smaller businesses is helping drive loan growth."
For the week ending today, BofA is up 5% to close at $30.35.
Buffett is "thumb-sucking" says investor on the way out Longtime Berkshire shareholder David Rolfe is done with Buffett.
Wedgewood Partners' chief investment officer has sold the firm's Berkshire stake, telling his investors that Buffett's "thumb-sucking has not cut the Heinz mustard during the Great Bull Market" that "could have been one helluva of an astounding career denouement" for Buffett and his partner, Charlie Munger.
Rolfe thinks Berkshire's roughly $120 billion in cash, the result of Buffett's self-admitted trouble finding things to buy at decent prices, is a "considerable impediment of growth."
Rolfe also criticized Buffett's troubled investments in IBM and Kraft Heinz, saying they "do not inspire confidence that Buffett & Co. are still at the top of their game."
In addition, Rolfe argues that Buffett failed to make major investments in Visa and Mastercard as they soared. "These two stocks should have been layups for Buffett."
While Rolfe's fund has owned Berkshire shares for decades, it only held around $10 million of Class B, according to its most recent SEC filing.
Berkshire subsidiary building $150M wind farm in Canada BHE Canada, part of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, says it will start building a wind farm next year in Alberta.
The Rattlesnake Ridge Wind project will make enough "energy to supply the equivalent of 79,000 homes" when it's up and running. The target for that is late 2021.
BHE Canada says it won't be getting any government subsidies for the project and already has a long-term deal with a large Canadian company to buy most of the power generated by the farm.
Berkshire completes sale of small insurer Berkshire Hathaway has closed its sale of worker's compensation insurance provider Applied Underwriters.
It's very unusual for Berkshire to sell a company, but in February he told CNBC's Becky Quick that it was "a little awkward" that Applied Underwriters was competing with two larger workers' comp insurers in the Berkshire stable. BUFFETT AROUND THE INTERNET Some links may require a subscription
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ARCHIVE
There are several video clips in CNBC's Warren Buffett Archive of Buffett talking about Bank of America. Among them:
BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH
Berkshire Hathaway Class A shares closed at $313,270 Friday, down 0.1% over the previous four weeks, and up 0.02% from one year ago. Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares closed at $208.76, up 0.31% over the previous four weeks, and up 0.09% from one year ago. The benchmark S&P 500 index closed at 2,986.20, down 0.20% over the previous four weeks, and up 7.85% 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 June 30, 2019, as disclosed in the company's August 14 13F SEC filing, except for Bank of America, which is as of October 10.
The full list of holdings and current market values is available from CNBC.com's Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.
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