Buffett dumps almost entire Goldman Sachs stake

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sold 84% of its stake in Goldman Sachs, around 10 million shares currently worth $1.7 billion, during the first quarter.

That brings the market value of its holdings down to $297 million as of March 31 from almost $2.8 billion just three months before.

During that time, Goldman's stock price fell 32% from $228.53 to $154.59 per share.

At today's close of $171.87, Berkshire's remaining 1.9 million shares (about 0.6% of Goldman's outstanding shares) are worth $330 million. (That assumes no moves were made between March 31 and now, which is not necessarily a safe assumption.)

Berkshire got roughly 13 million Goldman shares in 2013 for free, stemming from the 2008 deal in which Berkshire loaned Goldman $5 billion at the height of the credit crisis. It bought more Goldman in 2018, bringing its stake to 18.4 million shares as of the end of last September.  It was cut by roughly a third in last year's fourth quarter.

Also in tonight's SEC 13F filing, Berkshire sold 1.8 million shares of JPMorgan Chase, a 3% reduction in its stake. The sold shares are worth almost $155 million at today's close. Berkshire's remaining 57.7 million shares (again, as of March 31) have a market value of almost $5 billion.

Another small bank stock sale was disclosed Wednesday. Berkshire sold a small slice of U.S. Bancorp, worth around $15 million. That puts its stake just below 10%.

It's not all sales for Berkshire's bank stocks. It increased its stake in PNC Financial during Q1 by 6.1% to almost 9.2 million shares, worth $880 million at today's close. The additional 527 thousand shares have a market value of around $51 million.

Also in the first quarter, Berkshire eliminated small stakes in Phillips 66 and Travelers.

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BERKSHIRE STOCK WATCH

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, 2020, as disclosed in the company's May 15 13F SEC filing, and other SEC filings, except for U.S. Bancorp, which is as of May 12, 2020.

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

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-- Alex Crippen, Editor, Warren Buffett Watch