Buffett completely exits US Bancorp, BNY Mellon in Q1

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shed all its holdings in U.S. Bancorp and The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. during the first quarter while increasing stakes in several megabanks.

The Warren Buffett-led conglomerate sold its remaining 6,670,835 shares of U.S. Bancorp and 25,069,867 shares in Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) in the first three months of 2023, after having previously slashed shares drastically in both banks in the last quarter of 2022.

Berkshire's holdings in U.S. Bancorp before it exited were valued at approximately $291 million, while its prior stake in BNY Mellon was worth about $1.14 billion.

The changes in Berkshire's investment strategy comes during a period of turmoil as the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank shocked the banking sector and investor fears fueled industry stock declines.

Growing presence in big banks

Berkshire added to its investment in Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp. in the first quarter and picked up a new stake in Capital One Financial Corp.

The conglomerate boosted its position in Citi by 0.2%, picking up 89,000 shares. Its stake in the bank was worth about $2.59 billion as of the end of the first quarter. Berkshire grew its stake in Bank of America by 2.3% in the period, adding 22,751,400 shares in the company. Berkshire's initial stake in Capital One consists of approximately 9,922,000 shares.

– View Berkshire Hathaway's holding history.  – Read some of the day's top financial news and insights from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Other changes

Berkshire modestly increased its stake in Markel Corp. by 0.9% in the first quarter, adding 4,050 shares of the insurer.

Buffett also completely exited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. during the first quarter. The conglomerate had initially invested $4 billion in the semiconductor giant during the third quarter of 2022.

Apple Inc. remains far and away Berkshire's largest equity holding and accounts for nearly half of its stock portfolio. Berkshire added 20,424,207 shares of the technology giant to its portfolio in the first quarter, raising the value of its holdings in Apple to $150.98 billion.

The company's investment portfolio gained $26.10 billion in value since the fourth quarter of 2022, increasing to $325.11 billion as of March 31.