Monday, November 26, 2012

Berkshire Hathaway: Goodbye Kraft, Hello Iron Mountain

By David Berman

Warren Buffett handed copycats rich fodder on Monday after markets closed, filing Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s (BRK.A) irst quarter stock holdings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Mr. Buffett is a buy-and-hold investor. So, even though the information in the filing is now six weeks old, it still provides an accurate look at what the legendary investor is doing these days.

He increased his holdings in three stocks, which are hardly household names: Iron Mountain Inc. (IRM), Republic Services Inc. (RSG), Becton Dickinson and Co. (BDX).

Although the increases are hardly spectacular – with Berkshire controlling just 3.8% of Iron Mountain and 0.7% of Becton Dickinson – they are an interesting contrast to cuts elsewhere.

The most noteworthy cut: Berkshire sold 31.2 million shares in Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) representing 23% of its stake. While many of the other stock sales were due to Berkshire raising cash to help pay for its $27 billion (U.S.) Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. acquisition, the Kraft sale was also due to Mr. Buffett’s skepticism over the food company’s Cadbury PLC purchase.

At the Berkshire annual shareholders meeting, Mr. Buffett called the deal “dumb.”

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