Barron’s,”” Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Buys More Occidental Stock
Berkshire Hathaway was a big buyer of Occidental Petroleum stock in recent days in what will be seen as a vote of confidence by CEO Warren Buffett in Occidental and its CEO Vicki Hollub after the company unveiled its $12 billion purchase of the privately held energy producer CrownRock on Monday.

Berkshire Hathaway recently purchased 10.5 million shares for about $590 million and now holds a stake of 238.5 million shares worth $13.6 billion in the energy company, or a 27% interest, according to a Form 4 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Wednesday.
The purchases were made from Monday through Wednesday with Berkshire paying an average price of about $56 a share. Buffett took advantage of the recent weakness in Occidental Petroleum’s stock price, which hit a 52-week low Tuesday. These are Berkshire’s first purchases since late October.
The deal hasn’t played well on Wall Street as Occidental stock has fallen about 5% since news of the talks broke last month. Some analysts called the price rich. The shares gained more than 1% early Thursday.
What’s Next: To finance the deal Occidental will add additional debt to what is the most leveraged balance sheet among its peers. This could make the company vulnerable if oil prices continue to drop but Occidental would benefit if energy prices rise.

—Andrew Bary“”

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