Buffett & # 39; s Berkshire Unveils $ 861 Million Amazon Participation By Reuters

By Jonathan Stempel

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE 🙂 Inc, owned $ 860.6 million of Amazon.com Inc. shares (NASDAQ 🙂 at the end of March, after the billionaire admitted to having underestimated the online retailer and its general manager, Jeff Bezos.

The size of the investment was disclosed in a regulatory record detailing Berkshire's US-listed shares as at March 31.

Wednesday's deposit includes investments by Buffett and his portfolio managers, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, but does not specify who bought and sold what.

Buffett told CNBC this month that Combs or Weschler had invested the 483,300 shares of Amazon, which would now rise to $ 904 million.

This investment strengthens Buffett's relationship with compatriot billionaire Bezos, whose companies last year teamed up with JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE 🙂 to create Haven, a company dedicated to reducing healthcare costs for their employees .

Berkshire also invested in JPMorgan and increased its holdings in the largest US bank in the first quarter by 19 percent to 59.5 million shares valued at $ 6.02 billion.

Bezos was also congratulated by Berkshire's longtime vice president, Charlie Munger.

"It does not bother me that I did not catch Amazon early – this guy is kind of a miracle worker," Munger told Berkshire's annual shareholders' meeting on May 4, referring to Bezos. "It's very peculiar, I'm passing a pass for that."

The initial investments of Combs and Weschler have sometimes announced significant commitments in Berkshire under the leadership of Buffett.

This includes the purchase in 2016 of $ 32.1 billion from Precision Castparts, a manufacturer of parts for aviation and industry, by Berkshire, and a stake in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ) of D & C. Worth nearly $ 48 billion.

Investors monitor Berkshire's quarterly filings for value indices such as Buffett, Combs and Weschler. Stock prices often rise when Berkshire unveils new holdings.

Berkshire also owns more than 90 companies such as the BNSF Railroad and the car insurer Geico.

He often buys stock when buying whole companies seems too expensive. Buffett said on February 23 that prices were "exorbitant for companies with decent long-term prospects". The Standard & Poor's 500 has since increased by 2.1%.

Among the changes to the portfolio, Berkshire announced an increase in its stake in Delta Air Lines Inc. (NYSE :), PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (NYSE 🙂 and Red Hat Inc. (NYSE :), as well as that in the oil refiner Phillips 66 (NYSE :), Southwest Airlines (NYSE 🙂 Co and Wells Fargo (NYSE 🙂 & Co.