What Buffett Sold, Bought and What's to Be Made of It

Andy Obermueller submits: Here's what Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B) sold in the most recent quarter, according to Tuesday's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission:

• 1 million shares of Carmax (NYSE: KMX)
• 19.7 million shares of ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP), an acquisition he has called a major mistake. The sale amounted to 34% of his stake in the oil company.
• 854,490 shares of ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM)
• 1.2 million shares of Gannett (NYSE: GCI), the newspaper publisher, which represented 36% of his holdings in the company. (He did not sell any of his Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) stock, though it's hard to say whether that's because of his belief in the strength of the company or because of his fondness for Katharine Graham, the paper's former publisher and his longtime confidante.)
• 2.1 million shares of industrial conglomerate Ingersoll-Rand (NYSE: IR)
• 9.7 million shares of Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ)
• 7.4 million shares of Moody's (NYSE: MCO), which lost some of its luster in the subprime debacle and which now faces lawsuits about the ratings it gave mortgage securities. Plaintiffs include the California Public Employees Retirement System, whose lawsuit should be required reading for any fixed income investor.
• 8.8 million shares of Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG)
• 681,572 shares of SunTrust Banks (NYSE: STI)
• 2.2 million shares of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) the health insurer whose shares have been on a nice tear of late as the prospect of a nationalized health care system has grown unlikely. Buffett also offloaded more than 2.0 million shares of WellPoint (NYSE: WLP), another large health insurer that has seen similar gains to United Health.

Each of these sales helped Buffett raise cash for his Burlington Northern (BNI) takeover. And it can be inferred that Buffett sees more potential from Burlington than he does from any of the companies he sold.Complete Story »