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On Wednesday, Berkshire Hathaway revealed that it has taken up new investments in Starz and Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. They also decided to sell off some of their shares of Mondelez International Inc., a snack food maker.

There were a number of other adjustments made to the $85 billion US stock portfolio of Berkshire Hathaway during the first quarter of 2013. These changes were recently disclosed in documents that were filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC for short.

At the end of the first quarter, the company owned 6.5 million shares of construction and engineering firm Chicago Bridge & Iron, which has a main focus on energy products, and they also owned shares in the Starz movie network totaling 5.6 million

Chicago Bridge & Iron recently completed their purchase of The Shaw Group back in February of this year. They are the primary contractor at Plant Vogtle’s nuclear expansion. This deal is valued at $3.1 billion. The Shaw Group continues to remain the primary contractor of the Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility at Savannah River Site.

It’s quite common for investors to closely watch the things that Berkshire Hathaway does when trading so they can copy what Warren Buffett does. But, many of the most recent investments are smaller than $500 million. So these investments are most likely coming from Ted Weschler and Todd Combs, Berkshire Hathaway’s investment managers.

We are unable to learn which investments were made by whom through the quarterly stock filing. We do know that Ted Weschler and Todd Combs each have $5 billion portfolios that they manage for Berkshire Hathaway. Although Warren Buffett continues to make the majority of the investment decisions for the conglomerate based out of Omaha, Nebraska.

The officials at Berkshire Hathaway do not often comment when making their required disclosures, and when left a message on Wednesday afternoon, no one responded immediately.

At the end of 2012, Berkshire owned 12.8 million shares of Mondelez International. It has now cut its stake to 7 million shares. The company also trimmed their shares of Kraft Foods to 1.6 million. It was previously 1.67 million shares.

Berkshire also added on to some of the other investments in their energy portfolio. They bought more shares of National Oilwell Varco Inc. which brings it to 7.5 million shares. They didn’t add to their shares of ConocoPhillips or Phillips 66.

It’s no surprise that Buffett also added onto his favorite bank stock, Wells Fargo & Co. The company now owns 458.2 million shares. This is up from 439.9 million shares.

Berkshire also added onto its investment in Walmart, and brought it up to 49.2 million shares at the end of March. They previously held 47.5 million.

Buffett also increased his company’s investment in Internet registry service VeriSign Inc. They previously held 3.7 million shares, and now own 8.2 million.

The company completely eliminated two of their smaller investments in General Dynamics Corp. and Archer Daniels Midland Co. Both were part of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio at the end of 2012. Plus, Berkshire reduced its stake in Bank of New York Mellon from 19.6 million shares to 18.9 million shares.

During the fourth quarter, Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway bought up quite a bit of stock in National Oilwell Varco Inc., the Houston oil and gas giant. They held steady in their other two Houston-based companies.

Berkshire Hathaway, based out of Omaha Nebraska, chose not to touch Conoco Phillips, a Houston oil and gas exploration and production company. They didn’t add on to their Philips 66 shares either, which is the young spinoff of Conoco Phillips.

Even so, the Berkshire Hathaway Conoco Phillips investment rose by 1.4% to reach a total of $1.4 billion quarter over quarter. Their stake in Philips 66 rose 14.5% to $1.4 billion during the fourth quarter as well, we learned according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

During the fourth quarter, Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway increased their National Oilwell Varco holdings by 26.5%, and they now have more than 5.29 million shares. The value of the investment went up a total of 7.9% to reach $361.9 million.

It appears that many billionaire investors, right along with Warren Buffett, didn’t have such a rosy outlook for energy stocks during the third quarter.

The one thing I can say for certain about Warren Buffett is that he typically gets his investments right.

And if you were paying attention, you would’ve noticed that he just made a new decision which has him picking up shares of National Oilwell Varco. Berkshire Hathaway recently added 2.8 million shares of this company to their overall portfolio, and they focus on drilling equipment in case you are wondering. This edition was made to the portfolio during the second quarter.

If you aren’t familiar with ticker symbol NOV, and I’d like to mention that they are an oil services company. This company is typically overshadowed by businesses such as Halliburton, Baker Hughes and Schlumberger. But they are an excellent company and they have even made some incredible acquisitions throughout the years. As a matter of fact, they have made over 300 purchases in the last 15 years alone.

National Oilwell Varco recently announced that they are involved in nine more takeovers, and six of them happened during the second quarter alone. This is the way that they strengthen their overall position in a very competitive business.

The last deal that they made was a $2.54 billion cash buyout of rival company Robbins & Myers. This is the biggest purchasing transaction that they have made since 2007, when they acquired Grant Prideco in the amount of $7.4 billion. And this deal is actually looking like it will be their most beneficial transaction to date as well.

It’s important to know that NOV is currently the leading manufacturer of blowout preventers. This is a type of oil drilling safety equipment that unfortunately gained credence during the BP oil spill that took place not that long ago.

Since that spill happened, there has been new legislation which passed that required two of these devices on each and every oil rig, whether they are onshore or offshore. NOV is the second-biggest supplier of these devices as far as the land drilling market is concerned. But now that they will be taking over Robbins & Myers, which happens to be the fourth largest in this area, it will now claim the biggest piece of this growing market as the dominant player.

Robbins & Myers actually has a process solutions business as well, and they are capable of selling reactors and storage units to chemical companies and pharmaceutical businesses through this division. It’s very important to note this the boom in natural gas has also increased the demand of ethane and propane, as well as other liquid chemicals. So this market is expanding into other areas of business.

The overall effect of this new addition to their bottom line is expected to bring about an extra $.25-$.35 per share. That is excellent when you are talking about a company whose revenue surged by 21%, and their income increased by 20% last year at this time. But better yet, NOV anticipates that there earnings growth will go up by 16.25% annually during a five-year period. Even though they have been acquiring many companies quite recently, they are still perfectly capitalized.

NOV currently maintains a profit margin of 13.6%, and their operating margin is at 19.82%. The operating cash flow that they have is $939 million. The balance sheet of this company is strong, and they have $1.92 billion in cash and just $1.45 billion worth of total debt.

There shares have rallied over 7% since the takeover announcement, the stock price of this company is still very much a steel. The current PE of the company is 14.64, and their price-to-book ratio is only 1.81. Their dividend yield is 0.6%. Plus, when you take into account that Berkshire Hathaway now owns it, the price is definitely going to move a lot higher because of this.

Two university professors conducted a study during 2007 which they titled Imitation Is the Sincerest Form of Flattery. This study showed us that every stock that Buffett bought, even if it’s only is a month later, will provide you with superior returns on your investment.

The study found that “A hypothetical portfolio that mimics Berkshire’s investments created the month after they are publicly disclosed… Earns positive abnormal returns of 14.26% per year.” So if you believe that you’re a smart investor, then you should follow Buffett’s lead and pick up some stock in National Oilwell Varco right away.

Would you like and find out what else Warren Buffett is up to? Berkshire Hathaway also added 27 million more shares of Phillips 66 to their portfolio. This comes as part of a Phillips spinoff from Conoco Phillips, and it’s a stock that Warren Buffett has had for many years. Berkshire Hathaway also liquidated their entire Intel position, and they let go of 64% of their position in Johnson & Johnson.

Please use this information and take it at face value.

If there is one person in the world that many investors wouldn’t mind mimicking, it is definitely going to be Warren Buffett. If you read the most recent letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, you really won’t have any illusion as to why this is so.

Buffett originally invested $1.3 billion into Coca-Cola, and that investment has turned into $14 billion over the years. Buffett could also sell $450 million worth of his Gillette investment for $5 billion right now, although it is now part of Procter & Gamble shares that the company has. Buffett could also turn around and sell $1.3 billion worth of his American Express investment that he made a while back, and he would receive over $7 billion for those shares.

Since Warren Buffett has an incredible stock picking track record, it’s obviously understandable that many investors would want to pay close attention to the investment decisions that he makes.

You need to pay close attention when you hear that Warren Buffett is buying something, and make sure you are very careful that the news you are hearing is actually about a company in which Warren Buffett is actually buying.

Why, you may ask?

For instance, Sue Chang of Market Watch put out an article titled ”Phillips 66 Gains on Report of Buffett Investment” that offers this information:

“Shares of Phillips 66 (PSX) jumped on Friday in response to a report that billionaire Warren Buffett invested in the refiner which had spun off from ConocoPhillips (COP) earlier this year.”

On a similar note, Steve Gelsie, also of Market Watch, released a similar story titled “Buffett gases Phillips 66″ which offers the following news:

“A report that marquee investor Warren Buffett waded into shares of Phillips 66 sparked healthy gains in shares of the refiner on Friday, as energy stocked rallied with the broad equities market. Shares of Phillips 66 jumped 5% after the Berkshire Hathaway founder and chief Buffett told Bloomberg News he reduced his holdings in ConocoPhillips and bought into Phillips 66, a recent newcomer to the S&P 500.”

Do you want to know what the major problem is regarding these updates on Warren Buffett? The truth is that they don’t actually tell you about real investments made by Warren Buffett himself. The AP did get this Buffett report right when they announced this news update:

“Shares of Phillips 66 rose Friday after billionaire Warren Buffett said a Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A) investment manager purchased shares in the oil refining company. During an interview on Bloomberg television, the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said one of his company’s new investment managers purchased the stock of Phillips 66, which was spun off by ConocoPhillips in May. Buffett didn’t disclose any details of the investment, but he has said that investments made by managers Todd Combs or Ted Weschler tend to be smaller than those he makes. So the Phillips 66 investment likely was worth somewhere between $200 million dollars and $1 billion.”

So you know, there isn’t anything wrong with getting investment advice from Ted Weschler or Todd Combs. They are very successful investors who have incredible track records to their name. This is the reason why Warren Buffett hired them in the first place. So don’t feel like this is any kind of insult to either deputy if someone were to suggest there was a difference between a Buffett investment and a Weschler/Combs investment.

It sad, and just not true, that there are media outlets out there that will report that every single Berkshire Hathaway purchase was made by Warren Buffett. It’s obviously wrong to assume this since Buffett obviously didn’t purchase those shares in Phillips 66. That’s why you need to begin doing extra due diligence if you are making moves based on Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio thinking that Warren Buffett is making those purchases. It’s important to distinguish between the two, and you’ll need to be able to figure out if Buffett made a trade or one of his assistants made that particular stock purchase. So get used to having to sort through misinformation due to misreporting by the media.