Berkshire Hathaway Owned About 40 Million Shares of Exxon Mobil At End of Q3

When you are the most successful investor to have ever lived, people tend to follow your moves pretty closely.

Earlier today, in its quarterly Form 13F filing, Berkshire Hathaway revealed a new position in Exxon Mobil.

According to the filing, Berkshire Hathaway owned 40,088,971 shares of Exxon Mobil as of the end of the third quarter (September 30th, 2013). This position makes Berkshire Hathaway one of the largest shareholders of the company.

Berkshire Hathaway actually began accumulating their position in Exxon Mobil during the second quarter of 2013. The company filed an amendment to their Q2/2013 Form 13F filing in which they stated that they had owned about 30 million shares of Exxon Mobil as of the end of Q2/2013. In certain situations, the SEC will allow filers to omit certain positions if the filer has a specific and good reason for doing so. In Berkshire Hathaway's case, they wanted to accumulate their stake without copycat investors driving the price of Exxon Mobil higher.

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Berkshire Hathaway trimmed and increased a number of their core positions in Q3, but Exxon Mobil was the only new addition to their portfolio.

Exxon Mobil (XOM on the New York Stock Exchange) closed Thursday's regular session at $93.22, valuing Berkshire Hathaway's position at roughly $3.7 billion.

Filed under: General Market News