It turns out that Warren Buffett, like Joel Greenblatt and I, noticed just how cheap the stock market got into the end of last quarter and took serious advantage of it. Bloomberg reports:
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) invested $23.9 billion in the third quarter, the most in at least 15 years, as he accelerated stock purchases and broadened the portfolio beyond consumer and financial-company holdings. Berkshire bought almost $7 billion of equity securities in the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with $3.62 billion in the second quarter and $834 million in the first, the Omaha, Nebraska-based company said Nov. 4 in a filing. Stockholdings labeled “commercial, industrial and other” soared 62 percent in the three months to $17.4 billion on a cost basis, surpassing equity investments in financial and consumer-product firms… Buffett, 81, drew down Berkshire’s cash as Europe’s debt crisis and Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the U.S. pushed stocks to their worst quarterly performance since 2008. The investments disclosed Nov. 4 include $6.9 billion of equities, $5 billion for preferred shares and warrants in Bank of America Corp. and the acquisition of Lubrizol Corp. for about $9 billion.
It was definitely a good time to be bullish. Stocks are up 20% or so since then. Berkshire still has $35 billion or so in cash and it would be even more telling if he were continuing on his buying spree at today’s higher prices. However, I imagine it’s been, at the very least, tempered by the recent gains.
Hat tip, Crossing Wall Street and The Reformed Broker