Berkshire Hathaway Records $41-B Stock Purchases in First Quarter

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. opened the year with some $41-billion in net purchases, according to a report on Bloomberg.

The first-quarter purchases include additional investments in Chevron Corp. to make it among the four top common stock holdings, along with Activision Blizzard Inc.

The acquisitions come years after complaining about high valuations, with data as far back as 2008 showing that there has not been significant net buying in common stocks in any quarter.

The latest purchases brought the conglomerate’s cash pile to $106 billion, the lowest since the third quarter of 2018. It has also been hovering around near-record levels in recent quarters.

Shares repurchases during the quarter stood at $3.2 billion, the weakest since the first quarter of 202 and lower than the $6.9 billion repurchases recorded in the last quarter of the previous year.

Buffett said any deal by Berkshire “has to be sizable now,” noting that there are difficulties finding new ideas. BRK-A was up 0.96% after hours on Friday, while BRK-B is up 0.33% premarket.