Berkshire Hathaway Ramps Up Investment Deals In Real Estate

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. BRK.B has been pumping funds into real estate investments. In its recent endeavor, the company has announced an investment of $377 million in STORE Capital Corp. (NYSE:STOR) as per media reports.

With this investment, Berkshire Hathaway became the third largest shareholder, owning 9.8% stake in STORE Capital. The investor company has acquired 18.6 million of its shares at $20.25 per share per the release.

STORE Capital is a privately owned real estate investment trust (REIT), mainly investing in single-tenant properties. Shares of STORE Capital surged 11.27% in yesterday’s trading session.

Propelled by favorable trends in the real estate industry – sturdy occupancy, low levered balance sheet and potential for higher dividends – Berkshire Hathaway is also making investments in REITs. Ony last week, this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) insurer has announced to buy a 38% stake in mortgage lender Home Capital Group Inc. for about CS400 million and has also declared to offer it a loan amount of CS2 billion.

Berkshire Hathaway is a conglomerate with nearly 90 subsidiaries and engages in businesses, ranging from ice-cream to insurance. Though the company runs heterogeneous activities, its property and casualty insurance business remains the frontrunner, thus generating maximum return on equity.

The company has also always pursued strategic opportunities and its inorganic growth story seems impressive. Plus, it is expected to be accretive to earnings going forward. This has been supported by an exceptionally strong capital position.

Investment in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) (increasing stake fourfold) as well as in the four biggest U.S. airlines (increasing sevenfold) testifies confidence in business environment post the new President elect. As of Mar 31, 2017, the company has floated about $105 billion.

Shares of Berkshire Hathaway have inched up 0.49% quarter to date, thus underperforming the Zacks categorized Property and Casualty Insurance industry’s 1.65% increase. The company has also not witnessed any earnings momentum over the last 30 days. Nonetheless, with strong fundamentals and a continued focus to create tremendous value for the shareholders should drive the shares higher.

Stock to Consider

A better-ranked property and casualty insurer is CNA Financial Corporation (NYSE:CNA) , flaunting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

CNA Financial offers commercial P&C insurance products, primarily in the United States. The company has delivered positive surprises in three of the last four quarters with an average beat of 12.45%.

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