Berkshire Hathaway ( NYSE: BRK.B ) ( NYSE: BRK.A ) increased its stakes in Ally Financial ( NYSE: ALLY ), Occidental Petroleum ( NYSE: OXY ), Activision Blizzard ( NASDAQ: ATVI ), Markel ( NYSE: MKL ), and McKesson ( NYSE: MCK ) and exited stakes in Verizon ( NYSE: VZ ) and Royalty Pharma ( NASDAQ: RPRX ) during Q2, according to its 13F filing.
The insurance and industrial conglomerate increased its stake in Ally Financial ( ALLY ), the auto lender and online bank, to ~30M shares from about 801K in its previous filing. Its holdings in Activision Blizzard ( ATVI ) climbed to ~68.4M shares from 64.3M. Holdings in insurance company Markel ( MKL ) rose to ~468M shares from ~417M shares. Its stake in pharmaceutical and medical supply distributor McKesson ( MCK ) stake increased to 6.04M shares from ~2.92M shares.
Once its Occidental ( OXY ) holdings increased to over 10%, Berkshire ( BRK.B ) was required to disclose those share acquisitions soon after it made them. On Aug. 8, the company run by Warren Buffett said it acquired 6.68M more shares of OXY, bringing its stake in the oil and gas producer to 20.2%.
Among stakes that it pared: US Bancorp ( NYSE: USB ) fell to ~118M shares from ~127M shares; General Motors ( NYSE: GM ) to ~52.7M shares from ~62.1M shares, Kroger ( NYSE: KR ) to 52.4M from ~58.0M shares; and STORE Capital ( NYSE: STOR ) to 6.93M shares from ~14.2M shares.
About a week ago, Berkshire ( BRK.A ) posted higher Q2 operating earnings from both the previous quarter and the year-ago quarter on strength in most of its major operating divisions.
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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway increases stake in Ally, Activision