By Lavonne Kuykendall and Marshall Eckblad
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
Warren Buffett nearly doubled his holdings of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) in the quarter ended Sept. 30, according to filings, in one of several extensive changes the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRKA, BRKB) made in the company's investment portfolio.
The total value of his equity holdings rose more than 10%, to $56.6 billion at Sept. 30.
The biggest change in Buffett's investment portfolio was an increase in his holdings of Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, to 37.8 million shares on Sept. 30 from 19.9 million shares at the end of June. He also reported closing out his stake in several companies and introduced a handful of new companies from various market sectors.
Buffett's investment vehicle, Berkshire Hathaway, reported new stakes of 27,366 shares of commercial insurer Travelers Cos. Inc. (TRV), 3.4 million ADRs of food maker Nestle S.A. (NESN.VX, NSRGY), and 3.625 million shares of waste-management firm Republic Services Inc. (RSG), while selling out or cutting back his stakes in several others.
Buffett also boosted his stake by nearly 11 million shares of Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) to 313.4 million shares.
He reported for the first time a stake of 1.28 million shares on Sept. 30 of Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM). However, on Monday he also disclosed that as of June 30, he had held 854,490 shares of Exxon Mobil.
Buffett said in the filing that he's been granted confidential treatment by the SEC for some of his holdings, but he didn't provide any additional detail. Prominent investors are sometimes permitted to temporarily withhold information from their quarterly reports if the disclosure would interfere with an investment strategy. For example, Buffett was permitted to not disclose his holdings of Exxon Mobil at the end of the second quarter.
Buffett reported no stake in Eaton Corp. (ETN), compared with 2 million shares reported on June 30, and no stake in Wabco Holdings Inc. (WBC) from 2.7 million shares at June 30. He cut holdings of ConocoPhillips Co. (COP) by 7 million shares, to 57.4 million at Sept. 30.
He also said he held 6 million shares of NRG Energy Inc. (NRG), down from a stake of 7.2 million shares listed in June. He reported holding 3.4 million shares of Wellpoint Inc. (WLP), down from 3.5 million shares at the end of June
Buffett also reported holding around 3.2 million shares of Sun Trust Banks Inc. (STI), down 124,822 shares from June 30.
Also, as part of his recently announced deal to buy the rest of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (BNI), Buffett said he would sell his shares in Union Pacific Corp. (UNP) and Norfolk Southern Corp. (NSC).
In a television interview last week with Charlie Rose, Buffett said he had sold the shares already. On Sept. 30, Buffett reported no change in his holdings of those railroad shares.
Buffett began selling off shares of Moody's Corp. (MCO) in July, and further sales in October reduced his stake to approximately 38 million shares, from the 39.2 million he reported at the end of September.
Many investors that manage more than $100 million are required to file 13-Fs with their stock holdings within 45 days of the end of a given quarter, giving the public its freshest possible glimpse into the portfolios of well-known money managers. Most hedge-fund managers and others wait until the last possible moment to make these filings. The third quarter's filing deadline is Monday.
-By Lavonne Kuykendall and Marshall Eckblad, Dow Jones Newswires; (312) 750 4141; lavonne.kuykendall@dowjones.com