On Monday, shares of Occidental Petroleum, the oil and gas exploration and production company were in focus after a regulatory filing released late Friday. The filing revealed that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has added to its sizable stake in Occidental Petroleum.
Billionaire Warren Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway Inc acquired another 2.95 million shares in Occidental Petroleum, a regulatory filing showed, bringing his stake in the U.S. oil producer’s common stock to nearly 29%.
Berkshire Hathaway Occidental stake
According to a Form 4 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway made an investment of around 2.6 million shares of Occidental Petroleum. This was between Wednesday and Friday last week, taking its total stake in the company to 250.6 million shares. The valued at nearly $15 billion based on Friday’s $59.48 closing price.1
Berkshire buys Occidental shares
The purchases, valued at roughly $153 million, give Berkshire 28% interest in the energy producer, through Buffett wrote in the 2023 shareholder letter that the investment firm has no interest in acquiring or managing the company. Rather, he pointed out that he particularly likes Occidental’s vast oil and gas holdings in the United States, as well as its carbon-capture initiatives, while also praising CEO Vicki Hollub’s leadership.2
The famed value investor may have viewed Occidental’s recent retracement of around 15% from its 2024 high as an opportunity to deploy some of Berkshire’s $189 billion cash pile to build its holdings in the company’s stock.
Berkshire Occidental Petroleum deal
Berkshire’s latest purchase of Occidental Petroleum shares also coincides with the energy producer announcing last week that it had entered into a joint venture deal with the conglomerate’s energy unit to extract lithium, a metal used to produce batteries for electric vehicles, consumer electronics, and energy grid storage.3
Occidental stock outlook
Occidental shares have remained entrenched within a trading range since January last year apart from a bull trap in early April this year, a chart pattern that traps investors who have taken long positions in the stock. More recently, the price has fallen below the closely watched 200-day moving average to the lower portion of the range on below-average volume, potentially indicating slowing selling momentum.
