Warren Buffett takes $4B stake in JPMorgan Chase
Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett discusses why it’s a tough environment for private equity.
Shares of JPMorgan Chase rose on Thursday after Berkshire Hathaway founder Warren Buffett disclosed a $4 billion stake in the bank.
Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
---|---|---|---|---|
JPM | JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. | 217.63 | -1.70 | -0.78% |
Buffett’s firm purchased more than 35 million shares of JPMorgan in the third quarter, Berkshire Hathaway disclosed in a 13-K filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing detailed Berkshire’s holdings through Sept. 30.
JPMorgan shares are little changed this year.
Berkshire Hathaway is heavily invested in U.S. banks. The company’s stake in Bank of America ranks as its second-largest holding and grew by 29 percent in the third quarter. Berkshire also holds stakes in Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, U.S. Bancorp and Bank of New York Mellon.
A longtime admirer of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Buffett admitted last March that he felt he had made a “mistake” by never investing in the bank in the past.
“We have had a pretty heavy weighting in banks right along. But I should have bought JPMorgan,” Buffett told Yahoo Finance. “I wish we bought a lot more. I made a mistake.”
Buffett is also teaming up with Dimon and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on a new healthcare venture that aims to increase transparency and cut costs for their employees. Berkshire Hathaway, which earned nearly $45 billion in net profit in fiscal 2017, also disclosed new stakes in Oracle and Travelers.