Berkshire Hathaway Inc. disclosed on Tuesday that it has increased its investment in Teva Pharmaceutical (TEVA) more than two folds, sending Teva shares up nearly 5 percent in the after-hours trading session on Tuesday.
The company, owned by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, said it now owns nearly 40.5 million Teva ADRs worth $693 million as of purchase date, well above 18.9 million ADRs three months ago.
Separately, Berkshire affirmed that it has become the second biggest shareholder in Apple Inc. (AAPL). The company also revealed that it sold its stake in Graham Holdings (GHC), ending an investment that once surpassed $1 billion. Graham was popular for previously owning the newspaper “The Washington Post” and “Newsweek.”
The changing reading habits have hurt the newspaper industry. Buffett has said that there are just few in the industry left that have introduced digital business models capable of restoring lost print advertising.
Moreover, Berkshire owns nearly $173 billion of equities, beside dozen of businesses in sectors such as energy, railroad and food.
The aforesaid disclosures were made in a regulatory filing showing Berkshire’s stakes in U.S-listed companies as of March 31.
Bigger stock investments are usually made by Buffett, whereas his investment managers Todd Combs and Ted Weschler work on smaller bets.
Berkshire’s total equities investment during the quarter was around $14.8 billion, and a bigger portion of that went to the Cupertino, California-based iPhone maker. The company owns 239.6 million shares in Apple worth about $40 billion.
Buffett said in an interview earlier this month that he would love to own 100 percent of the iPhone maker. He also showed interest in buying more shares in Apple in future.
Berkshire also got rid of more than 6-years old investment in IBM Corp, which the company confessed was not its best.
