Berkshire’s Cash Hoard Swells as Buffett Pares Consumer Stocks

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A)’s cash swelled in the second quarter to its highest level in a year as Chairman Warren Buffett pared bets on consumer-products stocks.

Cash advanced 7.5 percent to $40.7 billion in the three months ended June 30, the Omaha, Nebraska-based company said in an Aug. 3 regulatory filing. Berkshire was a net seller of equities in the quarter as it cut its allocation to companies that make and distribute consumer goods while boosting holdings of financial firms and a group called “commercial, industrial and other.” Individual stocks weren’t listed in the filing.

“Why keep his old names that served a purpose for a while and have gone up,” Tom Russo, a partner at Berkshire investor Gardner Russo & Gardner, said in a phone interview. Some of the consumer stocks “have various forms of blemishes.”

Read Full Article from Bloomberg

- Posted: 2012-08-06 11:13:09

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