Berkshire Hathaway Inc., run by billionaire Warren Buffett, has tripled its stake in auto lending giant Ally Financial Inc.
In the second quarter, Berkshire’s Ally stake grew to 30 million shares from about 9 million.
Shares in Ally ramped up 6.5 percent to $38 in premarket trading on Tuesday.
In a Monday regulatory filing describing its U.S.-listed equity investments as of June 30, Berkshire also said it exited what was once an $8.3 billion investment in Verizon Communications Inc.
The filing does not specify whether Buffett or his portfolio managers Todd Combs and Ted Weschler made specific purchases and sales, but investors often try to mimic what Berkshire does. Larger investments are normally Buffett’s.
Berkshire slowed its stock buying spree in the second quarter as U.S. stock markets fell, purchasing $6.2 billion of stocks and selling $2.3 billion. It had bought $51.1 billion and sold $9.7 billion in the first quarter.
Nevertheless, Buffett’s conglomerate, which also owns dozens of businesses such as the BNSF railroad and Geico auto insurer, ended June with a $327.7 billion equity portfolio, led by $125.1 billion in Apple Inc.
It also invested more than $33 billion in two oil companies, Chevron Corp. and Occidental Petroleum Corp., as oil prices surged following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Berkshire has since purchased another $1.7 billion of Occidental stock, boosting its stake to 20.2 percent. It also owns $10 billion of Occidental preferred stock.
According to Monday’s filing, Berkshire also increased its holdings during the second quarter in Apple, Celanese Corp., Markel Corp., McKesson Corp. and Paramount Global.
It reduced its holdings in General Motors, Kroger Co., Store Capital Corp. and US Bancorp, the filing shows.
