Berkshire Hathaway shares end the first three months of trading unchanged as strong performance from a key technology holding helped offset weakness in financial stocks.
Berkshire Hathaway Stock (BRK.A) – Get a free report (BRK.B) – Get a free reportit ended the first three months of 2023 unchanged as strong performance from its largest holding helped offset weakness in financial stocks.
Warren Buffett is known to not care about short-term market movements unless they present buying opportunities.
DON’T MISS: Apple wants to change the way you listen to music again
The Berkshire Hathaway chairman can afford not to worry too much, of course.
But it’s a core tenant of his investment philosophy to buy good companies with good valuations and let their managers work for long-term profits.
Still, with the first quarter of 2023 coming to an end, it’s an interesting exercise to see what has and hasn’t worked for Buffett and Berkshire.
Berkshire underperformed the S&P 500 in the first quarter
As measured by Berkshire’s own stock, Buffett is an underperformer.
Shares of the company he chairs ended down 0.4% in the first quarter, compared with gains of more than 5% for the S&P 500 index.
Performance this quarter was hit by weakness in bank stocks following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in early March.
US Bancorp Stock (USB) – Get a free reportit fell 19.24% to $36.05. since December 31, 2022. The regional bank makes up a relatively small portion of Berkshire’s portfolio. It was the 35th largest holding by current valuations of the stock holdings identified in Berkshire’s latest SEC filing.
However, Bank of America shares (bac) – Get a free reportit also took a hit, falling 14.65% during the quarter. That stung more, as the stock is currently the second-largest holding in Berkshire’s portfolio, with a valuation of $28.9 billion as of Friday’s close.
Berkshire’s third-largest holding company, Chevron Corp. (CLC) – Get a free reportit also fell, losing 6.2% during the quarter.
Winners include a big tech name
The best performing stock in the portfolio during the quarter was Floor & Decor Holdings Inc. (NDF) – Get a free reportwhich increased 35.8% to $98.22 during the period. Floor & Decor is the 33rd largest holding in Berkshire’s portfolio.
The second best performer was NU Holdings (NO) which rose 33.7%.
And fortunately for Buffett, Apple stock (AAPL) – Get a free reportincreased 31.8% during the quarter. Apple is by far the largest holding in Berkshire’s portfolio according to the most recent SEC reports, with a valuation of $147.55 billion as of Friday’s close.
Get exclusive access to portfolio managers and their proven investment strategies with real money professional. Start now.
