NEW YORK: The billionaire finance guru Warren Buffett, who complained recently that he did not know where to put his money, said Saturday he has invested billions of dollars so far this year, even as he took jabs at Wall Street.
Buffett, 91, took questions for five hours at the much-anticipated annual shareholder meeting of his holding company Berkshire Hathaway in Omaha, Nebraska, its first in-person gathering since before the Covid-19 pandemic. He did so along with his right-hand man Charlie Munger, who is 98.
The event, dubbed a “Woodstock for Capitalists,” draws thousands of shareholders from around the world to hear the investment wisdom of Buffett, revered among investors as the “Oracle of Omaha.”
As markets vacillated since the start of the year, Berkshire Hathaway spotted bargains and bought shares worth more than $51 billion from January through March.
For example, it raised its investment in oil company Chevron from $4.5 billion in late 2021 to $26 billion in late March. Chevron is now among the top four of the holding’s investments, along with American Express, Apple and Bank of America. Berkshire Hathaway also acquired a 14 percent stake in Occidental Petroleum.
It bought an 11 percent stake in computer maker HP, as well, and increased its share of video game maker Activision — which is being acquired by Microsoft — to 9.5 percent.
Berkshire sold shares worth $10 billion over the same January to March period.
Bottom line, Berkshire’s war chest of cash on hand dropped from $147 billion to $106 billion. But Buffett said investors need not worry because Berkshire “will always have a lot of cash” to weather hard times.
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