The Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio

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Follow this list to discover and track stocks held by Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company of Warren Buffett.

Thomson Reuters StreetEvents
Edited Transcript of RH earnings conference call or presentation 30-Mar-20 9:00pm GMT
Q4 2019 RH Earnings Q&A Conference Call
Bloomberg
Bank of America CEO Says Half a Million Customers Have Deferred Payments
(Bloomberg) -- Half a million of Bank of America Corp.’s 66 million customers have deferred loan payments because of financial fallout from the coronavirus.“The idea is to defer the payment, defer the impact,” Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan said in an interview Friday on CNBC. “We’re working with our customers who need help, who are losing their jobs. We have to preserve their ability to have cash flow.”The lender is also dealing with a deluge of requests for funds from the government’s small-business relief program. By Friday evening, it had received 85,000 applications requesting $22 billion.The Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender earlier said it was prioritizing 1 million of its existing small-business borrowers because they had already been vetted and could receive funds most quickly, Moynihan said.That approach sparked criticism, including from Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, who tweeted that the policy isn’t from the government but rather from Bank of America. “They should drop it,” he said.The bank later said it would broaden its lending soon.“In this first initial launch, we have focused on our full-relationship clients” comprised of current borrowers, Dean Athanasia, president of the bank’s consumer and small-business division, said in a memo to staff. “We are also highly focused on responding to the needs of our core small-business customers who do not currently have any borrowing relationship. We will expand our process soon and, in the meantime, are addressing these through an escalation process.”President Donald Trump, meanwhile, tweeted Friday that a “great job” is being done by Bank of America and many community banks. “Small businesses appreciate your work!”Some banks, including Wells Fargo & Co., said they weren’t ready as lenders across the country grappled with a lack of detailed guidelines from the government. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started taking applications Friday afternoon after warning clients Thursday night it was still awaiting guidance and may not be ready the following day.Separately, Moynihan said in the CNBC interview that only 5% of Bank of America’s trading employees are working from the company’s offices.(Updates with loan application volume in third paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg
Berkshire Cuts Delta, Southwest Stakes With Airlines in Freefall
(Bloomberg) -- Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. unloaded shares this week in Delta Air Lines Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co. as U.S. carriers braced for an unprecedented collapse in travel demand because of the coronavirus pandemic.Berkshire cut its Southwest holding by 4% and its Delta stake by 18%, according to regulatory filings Friday. That reduced the exposure of Buffett’s company to an industry in freefall, with Delta predicting a 90% drop in second-quarter sales and competitors making similarly dire forecasts.U.S. airlines, which enticed Berkshire three years ago despite Buffett’s longtime skepticism of the industry, are now turning to the government for financial aid as passengers stay home amid the viral outbreak. Drastic cuts to flight schedules reflect the virtual disappearance of U.S. airline traffic, with barely more than 150,000 passengers flying nationwide on any given weekday compared with normal loads of more than 2.2 million.“I wish I could predict this would end soon, but the reality is we simply don’t know how long it will take before the virus is contained and customers are ready to fly again,” Delta Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian told employees. “Unfortunately, even as Delta is burning more than $60 million in cash every day, we know we still haven’t seen the bottom.”Delta fell 10% to $20.15 after the close of regular trading in New York, with Southwest and other airlines down as well. A Standard & Poor’s index of major U.S. carriers has tumbled 60% this year, paced by the 74% drop of United Airlines Holdings Inc.Federal AidAirlines are applying for federal aid as the government steps in with cash assistance for passenger carriers of $25 billion to help make payroll, plus another $25 billion in loans.United and American Airlines Group Inc. -- in which Berkshire also owns stakes -- are seeking help, as are Delta, Southwest, JetBlue Airways Corp. and Alaska Air Group Inc. The carriers submitted proposals for payroll assistance Friday. Several said they would negotiate terms in the coming days with the U.S. Treasury, which declined to comment.But as their customers stop flying, the companies said they would be forced to do more to reduce costs and seek additional capital because the government aid won’t be enough.About 30,000 of Delta’s workers have applied for unpaid, voluntary leaves and “we continue to need more volunteers,” Bastian said.Parked JetsJetBlue is parking more than 100 planes out of its fleet of 259 and cut its April flying schedule by 70%.“We’ve shared with you in the past weeks the unprecedented decline in demand for travel, and the situation continues to deteriorate,” JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes said in a message to employees.United is chopping about 80% of its capacity this month to curb costs, with even larger cuts planned in May. The weakness is likely to linger, with United planning for sales “at least 30%” lower in the fourth quarter than in the same period last year, according to a regulatory filing.The airline said it will “proactively evaluate and cancel flights on a rolling 90-day basis until it sees signs of a recovery in demand.”Berkshire has seen enough to pare its holdings. Buffett’s company still has a $1.32 billion stake in Delta and a $1.57 billion investment in Southwest. Berkshire has to report mid-quarter changes because its holdings in those airlines are above a 10% threshold.Berkshire InvestmentsBuffett’s company also has previously reported investments in American and United, but doesn’t have to disclose changes to those stakes as frequently since he’s below a 10% ownership level. Buffett’s assistant didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking comment.The billionaire was a longtime critic of the airline industry after making a bet on US Airways that he called a “mistake.” He even once joked that capitalists should have shot down the Wright brothers’ plane and saved money for investors.In late 2016, however, Berkshire revealed major investments in the big U.S. airlines. Buffett has said that some of the issues in the industry had stabilized as competition dwindled.Berkshire’s large stakes have stoked speculation that it could buy one of the airlines given that Buffett’s company had nearly $128 billion in cash at the end of the year. But the investor said in February that that would be “very unlikely” since such a deal would be complicated in the highly regulated industry.Since then, the airlines have plunged into the worst crisis in their history.“If anyone tells you that they’ve seen anything like this before,” said JetBlue’s Hayes, “don’t believe them.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg
Berkshire Hathaway Cuts Delta, Southwest Stakes
(Bloomberg) -- Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. spent this week selling shares of Delta Air Lines Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co.Berkshire sold nearly 13 million shares in Delta and roughly 2.3 million shares of Southwest, according to regulatory filings Friday. That left Buffett’s company with a $1.32 billion stake in Delta and a $1.57 billion holding of Southwest stock.Airlines across the U.S. have been pummeled by a steep drop-off in travel as the coronavirus spreads throughout the country. Delta Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian said Friday in a memo that it expects second-quarter revenue to fall 90%.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Skift
Feds Come to Rescue of Flyers With Hardball Mandate to U.S. Airlines on Refunds
U.S. airlines must refund passengers when they cancel flights due to the coronavirus pandemic, the federal government said Friday, a blow to at least two carriers that have been making it difficult for customers to recover their money. The pro-consumer move is consistent with the U.S. Department of Transportation's usual policy, though there was some […]
Zacks
The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Eli Lilly, Charter, Eaton, Autodesk and Cypress Semiconductor
The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Eli Lilly, Charter, Eaton, Autodesk and Cypress Semiconductor
Zacks
Why Charter (CHTR) Could Beat Earnings Estimates Again
Charter (CHTR) has an impressive earnings surprise history and currently possesses the right combination of the two key ingredients for a likely beat in its next quarterly report.
FX Empire
USD/CAD Daily Forecast – Canadian Dollar Is Supported By Surging Oil Prices
USD/CAD consolidates near 1.4150 as safe haven purchases of U.S. dollar are offset by the strength in the oil market.
Bloomberg
U.S. Payrolls Fall 701,000 in March Ahead of Surge in Layoffs
(Bloomberg) -- U.S. employment plummeted last month by a degree not seen since the last recession, in just an early glimpse of the devastation from the coronavirus pandemic.Payrolls fell 701,000 from the prior month -- compared with the median forecast of economists for a 100,000 decline -- according to Labor Department data Friday that mainly covered the early part of March, before government-mandated shutdowns forced firms to lay off millions more workers. This was the first decline in monthly payrolls since 2010.The jobless rate jumped to 4.4% -- the highest since 2017 -- from a half-century low of 3.5%, and is expected to surge in the coming months. Bloomberg Economics sees the rate rising to 15% soon, while Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard said it may hit 30% this quarter.Click here for a transcript of Bloomberg’s TOPLive blog on the jobs report.The numbers are already outdated. Because the reference period for the jobs report is based on the 12th of the month, it didn’t capture the vast majority of the nearly 10 million people who have filed for unemployment benefits in the last two weeks alone.Such projections are a dramatic shift from just a month ago, when job gains topped 200,000 and employers were having so much difficulty finding qualified workers that they were hiring previously marginalized populations such as people with criminal records. President Donald Trump has frequently touted strong employment figures as he runs for re-election this year.But in the last few weeks, the disease known as Covid-19 has rapidly spread across the U.S., killing thousands and leading an increasing number of states to encourage or order their citizens to stay home.“The abruptness with which the economy has taken this step down is so striking,” FS Investments Inc. Chief U.S. Economist Lara Rhame said on Bloomberg Television. “It’s like a hurricane but hitting the entire country at the exact same time.”What Bloomberg’s Economists Say“Workers who were paid for just a few hours during the early part of the month were still counted as a nonfarm payroll, so the March data are only an early snapshot illustrating the start of unprecedented job losses -- in terms of both speed and magnitude -- in the economy. April job losses will be at least 30 times larger, in the vicinity of 20 million. Unemployment will soar toward 15% next month.”\-- Carl Riccadonna, Yelena Shulyatyeva and Andrew HusbyClick here for the full note.Treasury yields and U.S. stocks were lower Friday following the report. The Bloomberg dollar index held gains.Congress and the Trump administration are trying to help individuals and small businesses rocked by the economic shutdown, with a loan program for small firms getting off the the ground Friday and direct checks en route to many households in coming weeks.But the program that provides up to $350 billion in aid to small businesses, aimed at preventing further layoffs, has been mired with website glitches and a lack of communication with lenders. Additionally, some of the $1,200 checks meant to soften the economic toll on Americans may not arrive until September.Employment in leisure and hospitality was hit particularly hard, falling by 459,000 in March, nearly wiping out two years of job gains. The losses were mainly in food services and drinking places. Private payrolls overall dropped by 713,000.Average hourly earnings rose 0.4% from the prior month and were up 3.1% from a year earlier, both above estimates -- and potentially due to the removal of low-wage workers from the ranks of the employed.The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the unemployment rate would have been almost 1 percentage point higher if workers who were recorded as employed but absent from work due to “other reasons,” were classified as unemployed on temporary layoff. The BLS said that this discrepancy might result from respondents misunderstanding a survey question.“The jobs report was extremely weak, sending an ominous signal of what is to come,” said Michelle Meyer, head of U.S. economics at Bank of America Corp. “Not only were the numbers terrible but the BLS noted that they could have been worse.”In addition, the figures may be less reliable than usual because survey response rates were significantly below typical levels from both households and businesses.The Labor Department said in a special note that “It is important to keep in mind that the March survey reference periods for both surveys predated many coronavirus-related business and school closures in the second half of the month.”A separate report Friday from the Institute for Supply Management showed measures of business activity and employment at U.S. services firms contracted in March, an abrupt reversal from solid growth the previous month.Other DetailsThe average work week fell to 34.2 hours, the lowest since 2011, in a sign companies began pulling back before laying off workers. Temporary workers fell by 49,500, the largest decline since 2009; retail jobs fell by 46,200.The initial wave of layoffs hit Hispanic and Asian Americans harder, with their unemployment rates each jumping 1.6 percentage points to 6% and 4.1%, respectively. The white jobless rate rose 0.9 point to 4%, and it was up 0.9 point to 6.7% for black Americans.Government jobs rose by 12,000, with a 17,000 rise in temporary jobs tied to the decennial census count.The number of people classified as unemployed on temporary layoff totaled 1.85 million, up from 801,000 in February, for the biggest one-month increase in records going back to the 1960s.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg
Market’s Jobs Response Signals Yield-Curve Control Is Here
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- If the past two days of trading in U.S. Treasuries are any guide, yield-curve control might have already reached the world’s biggest bond market.On Thursday, Labor Department data showed a record 6.65 million people filed jobless claims in the week ended March 28, blowing past estimates for 3.76 million. When added to the previous week’s tally, it showed almost 10 million Americans were out of work because of the coronavirus pandemic. And yet, 10-year Treasuries took those figures in stride. The borrowing benchmark fluctuated by less than 7 basis points, the tightest range since Feb. 19, the same day the S&P 500 Index hit a record high. It closed 1 basis point higher than where it started the day, at 0.597%.On Friday, Labor Department data showed U.S. payrolls fell 701,000 in March compared with February, the first decline since 2010 and far exceeding the median forecast for a 100,000 drop. The jobless rate rose to 4.4%, the highest since 2017, and strategists are already expecting the April report to show nothing short of a crash, with 20 million jobs lost and an unemployment rate of 15%. Again, 10-year Treasuries barely budged at about 0.59%.From an economic state-of-play perspective, Friday’s jobs report was always going to be stale. It only captured payrolls from the week that included March 12 — when many people were still reporting to work as usual. Bond traders are paid to look ahead, and no employment figures right now will help in that effort. They have the same question as the rest of America: “Is the worst over yet?”Until they get an answer, the best way forward seems to be counting on the Federal Reserve to take whatever actions are necessary to keep the $17 trillion Treasuries market in order. Effectively, bond traders seem to be entering a period of unofficial “yield-curve control” as long as the world’s largest economy deliberately grinds to a standstill.The increase in the Fed’s balance sheet since the job report’s reference date has been nothing short of extraordinary. The central bank gobbled up $1.5 trillion of assets in the past three weeks, far and away the steepest climb on record. It has started to scale back only slightly, while also introducing a temporary repurchase agreement facility that lets other central banks swap Treasuries for dollars. That should stem forced sales by so-called foreign official holders.It seems reasonable to expect the Fed to continue outright purchases for the foreseeable future, given that the Treasury will ramp up issuance to cover the $2 trillion coronavirus relief package. Taking cues from the central bank is at least a more reliable strategy than trying to read between the lines of horrid jobs data. Wage growth, once the most important figure in the monthly release, is now meaningless. Average hourly earnings actually beat expectations in March by rising 3.1%, likely because a large group of lower-paid workers lost their jobs.I have called yield-curve control, an idea championed last year by Fed Governor Lael Brainard, a bond trader’s nightmare. That’s probably still true, though the wild price swings of March were arguably even more frightening. To be clear, the central bank has not officially set any sort of target. But it has provided clear forward guidance: the Fed will buy “in the amounts needed to support the smooth functioning of markets for Treasury securities and agency MBS.”With so much still unknown about how long it will take the U.S. to slow the pace of the coronavirus outbreak and what the ultimate economic damage will look like, it makes sense that traders would find comfort in a range. While Bank of America Corp. technical strategists said this week that 10-year yields could hit zero in the next three months, somewhere around the current 0.6% feels about right, given what’s known about the labor market and nationwide shutdowns so far, as well as what’s contained in the relief package.Treasuries have little data to trade on except glimmers of hope that the global economy will get to the other side of this crisis sooner rather than later. That’s not a backdrop for decisive trades. It’s not quite yield-curve control, but it’s close.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg LP and its owners.Brian Chappatta is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering debt markets. He previously covered bonds for Bloomberg News. He is also a CFA charterholder.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Investing.com
Travelers Stock Falls 3%
Investing.com - Travelers (NYSE:TRV) Stock fell by 3.03% to trade at $94.35 by 13:40 (17:40 GMT) on Friday on the NYSE exchange.
Zacks
PNC Financial (PNC) Displays Organic Growth: Time to Hold?
PNC Financial (PNC) appears to be a promising buying opportunity now, based on its rising loan and deposit balances aiding top-line growth.
Zacks
Cost-Control Efforts to Aid BNY Mellon (BK) Amid Low Rates
Cost-control efforts are expected to support BNY Mellon's (BK) bottom line to an extent. However, pressure on margins due to lower rates remains a woe.
Zacks
Airlines Laid Low By Coronavirus: When Will Growth Return?
Battered by coronavirus, airlines might not see a recovery in travel demand until at least 2022.
Bloomberg
BofA Prepares for Deluge of Small-Business Loan Applications
(Bloomberg) -- Bank of America Corp. is preparing for a flood of applications from U.S. small businesses seeking government relief to weather the coronavirus outbreak.“We know for these businesses speed is of the essence,” the bank said in a statement. “We can move fastest with our nearly 1 million small-business borrowing clients. That is our near-term priority. As the administration has made clear, going to your current lending bank is the fastest route.”The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company had staff working overnight Thursday to prepare for expected high volumes of applications Friday. The initiative is part of the $2.2 trillion government stimulus package and is aimed at helping small businesses survive the devastating impact of the pandemic.“We’re setting up shop and activating thousands of people to be able to take the applications,” Chief Executive Officer Brian Moynihan said in an interview Wednesday on Bloomberg Television. The bank has been heavily involved in talks with the White House and Treasury on the program, he said.On Thursday, the Small Business Administration bumped up to 1% the interest rate lenders may charge small businesses after banks complained that the previous approved rate of 0.5% was below even their own cost of funds.U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza released additional guidelines for the program just a few hours before it’s expected to become widely available Friday.“This is a very important program,” Mnuchin said in a news conference Thursday. “Please bring your workers back to work if you’ve let them go.”(Updates with Mnuchin’s comment in last paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
Investing.com
Bank of America Stock Falls 3%
Investing.com - Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) Stock fell by 3.16% to trade at $19.91 by 11:43 (15:43 GMT) on Friday on the NYSE exchange.
Zacks
New Strong Sell Stocks for April 3rd
Here are 5 stocks added to the Zacks Rank 5 (Strong Sell) List today.
Investing.com
PNC Financial Stock Falls 3%
Investing.com - PNC Financial (NYSE:PNC) Stock fell by 3.13% to trade at $87.92 by 11:20 (15:20 GMT) on Friday on the NYSE exchange.
FX Empire
Service Sector PMI and U.S Nonfarm Payrolls Put the EUR and USD in the Spotlight
Nonfarm payrolls and service sector PMIs are in focus today. With the West in shutdown mode, both labor market numbers and PMIs are expected to be dire…