14 Feb, 2022
Berkshire shed most of Marsh & McLennan stake in Q4'21
By Hailey Ross and Jason Woleben
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. dumped a large chunk of its equity stake in Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc.
Berkshire sold approximately 85.2% of its holdings in the insurance broker, representing more than 2.3 million shares. The value of Berkshire's holdings in Marsh & McLennan declined to $70.4 million at quarter-end, from $415.2 million. Berkshire had previously reduced its shares in the insurance broker by nearly 35% a quarter earlier.
Holdings in pharmaceuticals, financial companies down
Berkshire further shed its holdings in Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. in the fourth quarter of 2021, a continuation of its strategy over the prior quarters. The Warren Buffett-led company cut about 76.4% of its stake in Bristol-Myers, causing the value of its holdings to fall to $324.4 million from $1.30 billion.
Berkshire also slashed holdings AbbVie Inc. and Royalty Pharma PLC in the period, lowering them by about 78.9% and 34.2%, respectively.
A pair of card companies also fell a bit out of favor as Berkshire reduced its holdings in Mastercard Inc.
Berkshire also sold off a small wedge of its position in The Kroger Co., although the value of the shares increased to $2.78 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021 from $2.50 billion a quarter earlier thanks to a run-up in the share price.
New entries into Brazilian fintech, video game company
Berkshire disclosed an investment in newly public Nu Holdings Ltd. valued at about $1 billion as of the end of 2021. Nu Holdings operates as a digital financial services platform and technology company primarily in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia.
The conglomerate also made a first-time investment in Activision Blizzard Inc. worth $975.2 million at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021. Microsoft Corp. announced on Jan. 18 that it would buy Activision Blizzard in an all-cash transaction valued at $68.7 billion, setting the deal up to mark the largest-ever acquisition in the video game space.
Also, Berkshire added 9,541,517 Chevron Corp. shares to its holdings, representing a 33.2% increase quarter over quarter.
At the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, Berkshire held the largest percentage of its holdings in the technology, media and telecommunications sector.