Berkshire Now Has a $4 Billion Stake in Largest U.S. Bank--Update
November 14 2018 - 7:03PM
Dow Jones News
By Nicole Friedman
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is increasing its bet
on the U.S. banking industry.
The Omaha conglomerate took a $4 billion stake in JPMorgan Chase
& Co. in the third quarter, adding to a list of other large
holdings in major American financial institutions. JPMorgan is
currently the largest U.S. bank by assets.
Berkshire also took a new stake during the quarter in Pittsburgh
bank PNC Financial Services Group Inc. and increased its holdings
of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Bank of America Corp., Bank of New
York Mellon Corp. and U.S. Bancorp. Other banking investments
include Wells Fargo & Co. and M&T Bank Corp.
Berkshire disclosed the new positions as of Sept. 30 in a
securities filing Wednesday.
JPMorgan Chase declined to comment.
The new Berkshire investment in JPMorgan follows a number of
existing ties between the two companies.
Berkshire portfolio manager Todd Combs is on the JPMorgan board
and JPMorgan Chief Executive James Dimon is a longtime personal
friend of Mr. Buffett. In June, they wrote an op-ed piece together
that urged companies to consider ending the practice of providing
quarterly earnings guidance.
Mr. Buffett and Mr. Dimon have also teamed up with Jeff Bezos,
the CEO of Amazon.com Inc., to form a health-care venture aimed at
lowering costs for the hundreds of thousands of employees of the
three companies.
JPMorgan is on track to report a record year: It notched a
profit of $8.38 billion in the third quarter, with strength across
its businesses. The bank's stock has tripled in the past 10 years,
easily outpacing a roughly 65% rise in the KBW Nasdaq bank
index.
--Emily Glazer contributed to this article.
Write to Nicole Friedman at nicole.friedman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 14, 2018 18:48 ET (23:48 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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