Business

Why is Warren Buffett on a Billion Dollar Stock Buying Spree?

Despite the fact that this has been one of the worst quarters for U.S. stocks since the financial crisis began, billionaire Warren Buffet has been buying up stocks at a breakneck pace.

A filing late Friday from Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway shows it recently bought $20 billion in stocks in Q3–including $6.9 billion worth of dabbling in U.S. stocks, report CNN Money.

$8.7 billion was also put towards purchasing stocks for a chemical company called Lubrizol Corp. and $5 billion was invested in “preferred shares and warrants” of Bank of America.

“He sees something, and it’s big,” said Thomas Russo, a partner at Gardner Russo & Gardner, in a recent Bloomberg report.

The aforementioned $6.9 billion in common stock purchases represented a “fairly aggressive” market position for the third quarter, said Greggory Warren, the analyst who follows Berkshire for Morningstar, to CNN.

But that shouldn’t be a surprise. CNN reports:

The blue chip Standard & Poor’s 500 fell 14% in the third quarter, the biggest drop since the fiscal crisis hit markets in the final three months of 2008. Other major indexes also tumbled . . .

[However] Buffett continued to be bullish on stocks in comments during the period. On Aug. 15, he told PBS interviewer Charlie Rose that on the first day of trading after the U.S. credit downgrade — as the S&P 500 plunged nearly 7% — Berkshire made its largest single-day stock purchases of the year to date. And he said the $7 billion Berkshire had invested to that point of the year was at least $1 billion more than it had ever purchased in a year.

“It’s like buying on sale,” he said in that interview.

In regards to the recent stock purchases, analyst Warren said, “That‘s a better jump than we’ve seen from [Berkshire] in a while.”

The recent stock purchases might indicate that Buffett sees something that others are missing in the market. His Q3 investment is much larger than the $3.6 billion in stocks he purchased in in Q2 and and the $1 billion he purchased in in Q1.

“We saw a fairly significant decline in the [third] quarter,” said Greggory Warren. “The question is where [Buffett] put the money to work. We’ll have to wait to find that out.”

Comments (32)

  • iamhungry
    Posted on November 10, 2011 at 1:27am

    buy when everyone is nervous, sell when everyone is confident.

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  • MUDFLAPS
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 12:14pm

    Because the fix is in. He will make money because he is in bed with the right person.

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  • jessieH
    Posted on November 9, 2011 at 9:32am

    He sees Obama being thrown out of office.

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  • urgo2guy
    Posted on November 8, 2011 at 10:37pm

    The Europeans have said that they are determined to save the Euro. They are laying down the law of austerity measures to Greece and it appears to be swallowing it by force. The more Greece kicks about it the harsher the demands from Italy and it’s common market partners become. They have threatened to leave Greece on it‘s own if the austerity measures aren’t met.

    This is what is going to happen to the United States. Europe is going to demand the United States worship the Euro. In saving the Euro the bankers in Europe will do anything, including taking an offensive stance against the U.S. dollar and scuttling it on the open market in security trades and commerce. All they need is a couple of shills like Obama and Clinton with their hands on the reigns of U.S. politics and you can kiss the dollar goodbye.

    Report Post » urgo2guy  
  • Libertybell2012
    Posted on November 8, 2011 at 8:25pm

    Because he’s manipulating the market like soros…you think? And he’s Buttocks rozy with OB!

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  • Libertybell2012
    Posted on November 8, 2011 at 8:21pm

    I don’t know..YOU tell me..he’s BUTT ROSY with the PREZ…hmmmm.

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  • Bobby D
    Posted on November 8, 2011 at 7:44pm

    buffet, and america, will lose our butts when the dollar next fails. I am glad for that tax evader—he still owes the irs more than $100 000 000.

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  • TEARS FOR AMERICA
    Posted on November 8, 2011 at 7:27pm

    Soros has been teaching this old dog some new tricks, ya think?

    Report Post » TEARS FOR AMERICA  
  • FlutterBy8
    Posted on November 8, 2011 at 6:19pm

    I would be curious to know where his money is coming from as I suspect BofA is very close to failing along with other major banks in America!

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    • lildrummerboy
      Posted on November 8, 2011 at 6:50pm

      because BofA is too big to fail and if it really does go under they will bail it out and he will reap a return…probably doesn’t make much sense, but you know thats where that bank is headed, it doesn’t make sense to buy a ship with wholes in it unless you know there is some sort of ROI

      Report Post » lildrummerboy  
    • The-Monk
      Posted on November 8, 2011 at 7:26pm

      Sounds like he’s perparing for a big “short”. Did he buy the stocks or is he short selling them?

      Report Post » The-Monk  
  • jagr1850
    Posted on November 8, 2011 at 6:03pm

    buffet know the obumma will lose in 2012…..that explains the big bet on the market….bye bye obumma guy…

    Report Post » jagr1850  
  • UNSEEN01
    Posted on November 8, 2011 at 5:18pm

    BEWARE PEOPLE!!! This is american media in bed with the govt. trickery. Turn the tube on and ya hear, “There’s no better time to buy a car than now!!!” So people go out and look at cars and BAM!! Buy cars!! Mr. Billionaire here who is not on the average american‘s wave length anyways say’s, “OH LOOK!! I’d buy U.S. Bank Stocks Now!!” HHHMMM I wonder if this has anything to do with helping the banks back on their feet after their loss (which they wouldn’t come out and admit anyways) of losing so many people and their accts. just the other day on Nov. 5. Headlines were talking all big that it actually could’ve profitted the banks for people doing such a thing and blah blah blah and now all of sudden Warren Buffet comes out today and makes such comments. INTERESTING, sounds as if the banks did get a MAJOR PUNCH in the face.

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  • babylonvi
    Posted on November 8, 2011 at 4:24pm

    News Alert for all you anti-semites, Warren ‘taint Jewish. Worse than insider trading, it’s putting in the order for what you want the insider to do.

    Report Post » babylonvi  
    • chazman
      Posted on November 8, 2011 at 5:06pm

      … I’ll tell ya what Buffett sees, and that’s OBAMMY losing big in 2012!!!!!

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  • EqualJustice
    Posted on November 8, 2011 at 3:51pm

    “Clean water technology could spark another green economy ” A range of technologies and services are being developed to meet the challenges of communities and businesses…
    This looks like a winner for the rich guys??
    http://www.geenergy.com/products_and_services/industries/water_supply_and_processing.jsp
    Looked into water purification years ago.. Desalinization and ways to treat contaminated ground water, plus turning waste into energy.. HENCE this EXECUTIVE ORDER!!! http://www.wte.org/wte-recognized-renewable-president-obamas-latest-a3013

    Report Post » EqualJustice  
  • Salamander
    Posted on November 8, 2011 at 3:16pm

    Bet the farm!

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  • sacwoodpusher
    Posted on November 8, 2011 at 3:08pm

    Eventually, the amount owed bu all governments will be large. really large. The best way to deal with that is inflation. Make the money less valuable so that we owe less in real terms. So, to apy off the Chines, Arabs, etc., we simply print money and give it to them without taking out backing loans.

    This also fixes the mome mortgage problem.

    Report Post »  
  • EqualJustice
    Posted on November 8, 2011 at 2:54pm

    All the BILLIONAIRES control the stock market anyway. How many people do YOU know that can affford to buy STOCKS right now? Let’s see Lubrizol, EnPro and GE Water and Process Tech…all in cahoots? I think yes! We know SOMEONE is making a LOT of money on BRAZIL’S oil! Check out PETROBRAS.. remember them? THAT should be US right now….
    http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0CE1D91439F937A25753C1A9679D8B63&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

    Report Post » EqualJustice  
    • Salamander
      Posted on November 8, 2011 at 3:19pm

      Don’t you remember when Obama chased all the oil rigs out of the Gulf of Mexico? Where do you think they went? At the same time, he GAVE Petrobras a huge chunk of OUR change! You can bet your bottom dollar that George Soros has a ‘position’ in Petrobras!

      Report Post »  
    • EqualJustice
      Posted on November 8, 2011 at 3:52pm

      Yes, that’s why I said it should be US making all that money! It’s a shame…..

      Report Post » EqualJustice  
  • georgeisn6
    Posted on November 8, 2011 at 2:33pm

    The old communist thinks communism will prevail in this country, and he is makeing a big bet on that fact, he thinks he will be one of “O”whatabummer,s top Commissar’s

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    • JRook
      Posted on November 8, 2011 at 2:43pm

      Seriously does being stupid come naturally or do you work on it. Buffet through BH is without question the best investment mind of the past 30+ years. As an equity firm that would make them at the center of capitalism. His comments regarding tax policy and our tax code and how it perverts “real” tax rates in favor of the wealthy and large corporations is accurate. This report is an indication that similar to most physicists who make careers out of describing and testing what Einstein identified, most financial types can only observe and report on what Buffet might be doing.

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    • Ruler4You
      Posted on November 8, 2011 at 3:00pm

      He has just had private audiences with the president about economics in the last several weeks. You can‘t believe that something wasn’t discussed that would pay off Buffett for his “time”, do you?

      Roosevelt did this same kind of under handed shenanigans when he was president favoring one business over another. Congress does it all the time too. Isn’t that fascism?

      Report Post » Ruler4You  
    • progressiveslayer
      Posted on November 8, 2011 at 3:17pm

      Ruler4 you : Congress does it all the time too. Isn’t that fascism?

      No crony capitalism.

      Report Post » progressiveslayer  
  • gmoneytx
    Posted on November 8, 2011 at 2:18pm

    You’re either the borrower or the lender, guess which one is the slave and which one is the slave owner :)

    Report Post » gmoneytx  
  • lukerw
    Posted on November 8, 2011 at 2:05pm

    Buy it now… because the Money is becoming WORHTHLESS!

    Report Post » lukerw  
  • Bluefish49
    Posted on November 8, 2011 at 1:56pm

    Oh you can bet he knows somethings coming….he helped create the plan.

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  • hauschild
    Posted on November 8, 2011 at 1:56pm

    Buffet’s delusional.

    Then again, the way the stock market is controlled by the select few such as Buffet, really rich guys can make good coin. The average Joe is simply a pawn in their game.

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    • PossumRoadkill
      Posted on November 8, 2011 at 2:33pm

      Truer words were never spoken. With this kind of buying power, these kind of people can push the rest of us out of the markets and still make money on a downturn.

      Report Post » PossumRoadkill  

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