Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Continues To Increase Exposure To IBM In Q3

Legendary investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett recently appeared on CNBC and discussed several issues including the recent pullback and volatility in the market, his firm’s investment strategy, and his stakes in Phillips 66 PSX and International Business Machines Corp. IBM.

This article will focus, in particular, in Buffett’s bet on the latter.

Buffett & IBM

As many investors know, the hedge fund manager boosted his –already large- exposure to IBM by 3 percent -or 2,593,298 shares- over the first quarter of the year, to 79,565,115 shares. However, to the surprise of many of these investors (and even Mr. Buffett, who declared he though his firm was buying the stock), the second quarter witnessed no changes in this position, worth almost $13 billion. Still, this stake makes of Berkshire Hathaway the largest institutional investor in the company.

Now, the Oracle of Omaha said he had once again increased his wage on the tech giant – in the third quarter of the year.

When asked if he saw the recent pullback in the market as reason to be buying, Mr. Buffett answered, “we are buying because we like what we are buying in relation to its long term prospects (…) If we liked it at X [price] a few weeks ago, and it’s 95 percent of X now, I like it even better…”

Shares of International Business Machines are up almost 2 percent on Tuesday trading. However, since the beginning of the third quarter, they are down almost 10 percent.

Other investment firms betting on IBM include the Vanguard Group, which last disclosed ownership of 57,780,087, and hedge fund Diamond Hill Capital Management, managed by Ric Dillon, which owns 1,346,221 – according to its latest 13F filing.