Warren Buffett thinks pizza is more valuable than iPhones right now
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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A+0.69%) acquired a stake in Domino’s Pizza in the third quarter, even after dumping millions of dollars worth of Apple (AAPL-1.39%) and Bank of America (BAC+1.87%) to grow its cash pile.
In the three months ended Sept. 30, Berkshire bought 1.3 million shares of the pizza chain worth about $550 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission released Thursday.
Dominos stock popped 6% in pre-market trading Friday.
The sprawling Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate grew its cash pile to a whopping $325.2 billion last quarter, selling a total of $36.1 billion of stock, including considerable chunks of some of its long-held investments.
Berkshire trimmed a quarter of its remaining stake in Apple, bringing its investment in the iPhone maker to $69.9 billion. It was the fourth consecutive quarter of cuts to Berkshire’s holdings in Apple, which are now down by almost two-thirds from the $174.3 billion it owned at the start of the year. Berkshire halved its Apple stake in the second quarter.
But Buffett has signaled that he doesn’t plan to ever let go of his Apple stake altogether. During a question-and-answer session with Buffett at Berkshire’s annual shareholder conference in May, the 94-year-old investor said it’s “extremely likely” Apple remains Berkshire’s largest common stock holding — and that it will stay that way unless something dramatic happens.
Buffett’s firm also shed about $10 billion of its Bank of America holdings in a series of sales starting in mid-July. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan said at an event in September that while Buffett has been a “great” investor in the company, Moynihan doesn’t know why Buffett is offloading its holdings in the bank.
Berkshire also offloaded most of its stake in beauty supply retailer Ulta Beauty (ULTA-4.58%), which it had just built up in the second quarter of this year.
Meanwhile, Berkshire also added more than 400,000 shares of pool equipment wholesale distributor Pool Corp. (POOL+0.59%), valued at about $152 million. Shares of the company rose more than 6% Friday morning before the market opened.
