Warren Buffett made a slew of moves to Berkshire Hathaway ‘s equity portfolio last quarter, including selling big chunks of financial companies and a semiconductor name he had just purchased, according to a new regulatory filing. The Omaha-based conglomerate slashed its shares in Bank of New York Mellon by 60% in the fourth quarter to a bet worth $1.1 billion. Meanwhile, it also cut its US Bancorp stake by 90% to $291 million by the end of 2022. The duo each sold off more than 20% last year, slightly underperforming the S & P 500. The filing reflects moves made in the fourth quarter and holdings as of the end of 2022. The “Oracle of Omaha” dumped a significant portion of Taiwan Semiconductor , a chip stock he had just bought in the third quarter and made it Berkshire’s 10th biggest holding. At the end of 2022, Berkshire only owned just 8.3 million shares of the Taiwanese chipmaker’s American depositary receipts, worth $618 million, about 86% less than what it held in the previous quarter. The chip stock gained nearly 9% in the fourth quarter, but the rebound in the new year was even more dramatic with shares up over 30% year to date. Buffett continued to trim his position in Activision Blizzard last quarter, but the bet is still the conglomerate’s ninth largest, the filing showed. The investor has been reducing this position, a merger arbitrage bet, for three straight quarters as regulatory headwinds on the Microsoft takeover rose. The 92-year-old investor kept the majority of his top 10 holdings unchanged last quarter. He added to his gigantic Apple stake just ever so slightly last quarter. The tech giant, the conglomerate’s biggest holding by far, was worth $116 billion at the end of 2022 following a nearly 27% sell-off in Apple shares. Meanwhile, Buffett’s Chevron stake dipped marginally last quarter, worth $29.3 billion at the end of the fourth quarter, the filing showed. Chevron was still Berkshire’s third largest holding at the end of 2022.
