Mario Anzuoni/Reuters
- Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway purchased stakes in Domino's Pizza and Pool Corp. last quarter.
- The investing legend's company made big cuts to its huge Apple and Bank of America positions.
- Berkshire pared other holdings such as Capital One, and sold almost all of its Ulta Beauty shares.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway took a bite of the pizza business and jumped into the swimming pool industry last quarter.
The famed investor's conglomerate bought a slice of Domino's Pizza worth $549 million at the end of September, a portfolio update revealed Thursday. Its nearly 1.3 million shares represent a 3.7% stake in the pizza-delivery company.
Buffett and his team also purchased just over 1% of Pool Corp. — a wholesale distributor of swimming pool supplies and related products. That position was worth $152 million at the quarter's close.
Both bets are small relative to Berkshire's vast US stock portfolio, worth $266 billion on September 30. But neither was public knowledge prior to the filing's release, unlike the cuts that Berkshire made to its key Apple and Bank of America stakes. Those were broken out in its recent third-quarter earnings and fueled its net $35 billion of stock sales in the period.
Berkshire pared several smaller wagers including SiriusXM, Capital One, Nu Holdings, and Charter Communications last quarter. It also exited Floor & Decor and virtually eliminated its Ulta Beauty stake.
Buffett declined to fiddle with some of his most iconic investments including Berkshire's almost $29 billion stake in Coca-Cola, its more than $41 billion position in American Express, and its $11 billion-plus Kraft Heinz holding.
It owned just under $70 billion of its top holding, Apple, and less than $32 billion worth of Bank of America by the end of September — and filings show that position has been further reduced this quarter.
Buffett owning a piece of Domino's Pizza seems fitting given his insatiable appetite for fast food and the companies that produce it such as Berkshire-owned Dairy Queen.
The 94-year-old CEO and his two investment managers, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, jettisoned a net $127 billion of stocks in the first nine months of this year, inflating Berkshire's cash pile to record highs of more than $300 billion last quarter.
The fact that arguably the greatest stock picker in history has been pulling so much money out of the market has caused heated discussion over just what Buffett is thinking.