(Reuters) – Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc mentioned it has purchased one other 9.9 million shares of Occidental Petroleum Corp, giving it a 17.4% stake within the oil firm.
Berkshire paid about $582 million for the shares, which it purchased between Wednesday and Friday, based on a Friday night time submitting with the U.S. Securities and Change Fee.
Buffett’s firm is Occidental’s largest shareholder, now proudly owning 163.4 million shares price about $9.9 billion.
Its stake is about 60% bigger than that of Vanguard, the subsequent largest shareholder, based on Refinitiv information.
Berkshire additionally owns warrants to purchase one other 83.9 million Occidental shares for $5 billion.
Occidental’s share value has greater than doubled this yr, benefiting from Berkshire’s purchases in addition to rising oil costs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Berkshire funding has prompted market hypothesis that Buffett’s Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate may finally purchase all of Occidental.
In a June 23 analysis report, Truist Securities analyst Neal Dingmann noticed a “good probability” of a Berkshire takeover as soon as Occidental turned an investment-grade credit score, saying a purchase order would assist diversify Berkshire’s power portfolio.
Occidental has been decreasing debt, which swelled when it purchased Anadarko Petroleum Corp for $35.7 billion in 2019.
Berkshire purchased $10 billion of Occidental most well-liked inventory to assist finance that buy, and obtained the warrants at the moment.
It additionally had a $25.9 billion stake in oil firm Chevron Corp on the finish of March.
Berkshire’s share value has fallen 8% this yr, in contrast with a 20% decline within the Commonplace & Poor’s 500.
Buffett’s firm owns dozens of companies, together with the BNSF railroad, Geico automobile insurer and its namesake power enterprise, in addition to shares together with Apple Inc and Financial institution of America Corp.
Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York and Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru; Enhancing by William Mallard
