Speculation Continues As To Warren Buffett's New Purchase

Publicly traded companies can file a "confidential treatment request" with the SEC.

This request, if granted, allows for companies to omit potentially sensitive information from their quarterly filings. Instead, this confidential information is filed separately with the SEC, where it is kept secret for a certain period of time.

Berkshire Hathaway has filed multiple confidential treatment requests in the past when it is building a large position in a stock.

They did so with Phillips 66 in 2015 and IBM in 2011, to name a few.

The idea is that Berkshire Hathaway needs to build large positions in companies and they would rather not have the general public know what the position is. After all, this would cause people to jump in themselves, pushing up the price of the stock.

Berkshire Hathaway has likely been accumulating a large position in a company as of late, as they have had information held out of their quarterly filings.

With Berkshire Hathaway's 13F-HR filing expected later today, people are wondering if the name of this mysterious investment will be revealed.

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There has obviously been a great deal of speculation as to the identity of Buffett's new purchase.

Given the need to filing a confidential treatment request, this new addition will almost be a Warren Buffett purchase (which means very large in size), and not a purchase completed by one of his two lieutenants, which tend to be quite a bit smaller.

Some of the names included in the speculation have included Disney and Paypal.

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Some have speculated that Berkshire Hathaway likely accumulated a position in an industrial or commercial stock, based on information contained in recent filings.

Boeing has continued to be a possibility, as many people believe that Boeing is the perfect situation for Buffett and the deep-pocketed Berkshire Hathaway.

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Will we find out the identity of the company tonight?

Filed under: General Market News