In SEC Form 4 filings, Berkshire Hathaway (N:BRKa) has disclosed that on each of the first nine trading days of 2016, on each of the last three trading days of January, and on each of the first three trading days of February, it has added to its stake in Phillips 66 (N:PSX) at prices of $75 – $80 per share. Berkshire has accounted for an average of 25 percent of the volume of PSX shares on four of those days. This additional investment of approximately $964 million ($634 million in early January and $330 million in late January and early February) has resulted in Berkshire owning 74.0 million shares of Phillips 66, or 14.0 percent of its outstanding shares. Berkshire’s stake in Phillips 66, at its closing price of $79.10 on February 3, is valued at $5.9 billion and is its sixth largest stock holding.
Since it holds over 10 percent of the shares of Phillips 66, Berkshire is required to report changes to its position on SEC Form 4. Berkshire first revealed owning over 10 percent of Phillips 66 stock in August, 2015. This year’s purchases are the first Berkshire has made since September. It is likely that this additional investment in Phillips 66 was made by Warren Buffett’s portfolio managers, Todd Combs and/or Ted Weschler.