Berkshire Adds Archer-Daniels, Verisign; Boosts GM Stake

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway BRK is now among the largest shareholders of agriculture products company Archer-Daniels-Midland ADM after buying more than 5.95 million shares of the company in the fourth quarter. The new position was revealed in Berkshire's latest 13F filing, released Thursday evening. The investment in Archer-Daniels-Midland is Berkshire's second in recent quarters in the agriculture sector. In the third quarter of 2012, Berkshire bought shares of farm equipment maker Deere DE and held nearly 4 million shares of that company at the end of the fourth quarter. Berkshire also initiated a position in VeriSign VRSN, purchasing nearly 3.7 million shares of the Internet infrastructure services provider in the fourth quarter. That is enough to place Berkshire among the top-10 VeriSign shareholders. Buffett also appears to be bullish on General Motors GM as Berkshire now owns 25 million shares of the U.S. auto giant, up from 15 million at the end of Q3. Berkshire also boosted its stake dialysis provider DaVita HealthCare Partners DVA, but once again pared its investment in Dow component Johnson & Johnson JNJ.