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.