Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Slashes Stake in U.S. Bancorp

Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway

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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B, $303.20) cut its stake in longtime holding U.S. Bancorp (USB, $44.87) by more than half.

Buffett, who serves as Berkshire Hathaway's chairman and CEO, has been slashing his holding company's exposure to financial stocks – and bank stocks in particular – for years. And although the U.S. Bancorp position hasn't been immune to some recent downsizing in the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio, Buffett has left it mostly intact.

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That is, until now.

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Berkshire Hathaway sold 56% of its position in the nation's fifth largest bank by assets, a new regulatory filing revealed. Buffett's conglomerate now holds 52.5 million USB shares, or 3.5% of the regional lender's shares outstanding. That's down from an ownership stake of 8.1% prior to the sales.

Berkshire Hathaway's USB stock was worth $2.4 billion as of Thursday's close, and now accounts for just 0.7% of the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio. That's down from 1.8% before Buffett slashed the stake.

Berkshire, formerly the bank's largest shareholder, now drops to fourth place behind asset management giants Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street Global Advisors.

Buffett First Bought USB in 2006

Not to get sentimental or anything, but U.S. Bancorp is one of the oldest holdings in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio. Warren Buffett first bought shares in the nation's largest regional lender in the first quarter of 2006. And while he has always been tight-lipped about the USB position, Buffett's actions over the past few quarters have hinted that something like this might be in the offing.

After all, Buffett clipped Berkshire Hathaway's USB stake by 5%, or 6.6 million shares, in the second quarter of 2022. He also pared the stake in each of the first three quarters of 2021.

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True, Buffett had been gradually reducing Berkshire Hathaway's exposure to USB. But those scissorings stood in stark contrast to what he's done with so many of Berkshire's other bank stocks.

Mostly, he's taken a hatchet to them.

In just a sample of moves, Berkshire Hathaway dumped what was left of its stake in Wells Fargo (WFC) in the first quarter of 2022, and exited positions in JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS), PNC Financial Services (PNC) and Travelers (TRV) over the past couple of years.

To be sure, Warren Buffett is by no means done with big bank stocks. Bank of America (BAC) is Berkshire Hathaway's second largest holding after Apple (AAPL). The nation's second largest bank by assets accounts for 10.2% of Berkshire's total portfolio value.

Berkshire Hathaway also owns 55.2 million shares in Citigroup (C), a position that Warren Buffett initiated in the first quarter of 2022. At 0.8% of the portfolio, Citigroup is one of Berkshire Hathaway's 15 largest investments.

Other financial sector stocks in the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio include American Express (AXP), Bank of New York Mellon (BK), Mastercard (MA), Visa (V) and Ally Financial (ALLY), among others.

What This All Means

The bottom line is that U.S. Bancorp stock is a long-time market laggard, and so perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised that Warren Buffett decided it was time to dramatically lighten up on the position. We'll learn more of what the world's greatest long-term investor has been up to when Berkshire Hathaway reports its third-quarter buys and sells on Monday, Nov. 14.

For now, all we can say for certain is that Berkshire Hathaway stock has been a market-beating buy this year. Operating earnings expanded 20% in the third quarter, helping to bolster BRK.B's case as one of the best stocks to buy for a bear market.

It's also fair to assume that this isn't good news for USB stock. If Warren Buffett's recent history with big banks stocks offers any sort of guide, Berkshire Hathaway might be putting even more USB shares on the market soon.

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Dan Burrows is Kiplinger's senior investing writer, having joined the publication full time in 2016.

A long-time financial journalist, Dan is a veteran of MarketWatch, CBS MoneyWatch, SmartMoney, InvestorPlace, DailyFinance and other tier 1 national publications. He has written for The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Consumer Reports and his stories have appeared in the New York Daily News, the San Jose Mercury News and Investor's Business Daily, among many other outlets. As a senior writer at AOL's DailyFinance, Dan reported market news from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Once upon a time – before his days as a financial reporter and assistant financial editor at legendary fashion trade paper Women's Wear Daily – Dan worked for Spy magazine, scribbled away at Time Inc. and contributed to Maxim magazine back when lad mags were a thing. He's also written for Esquire magazine's Dubious Achievements Awards.

In his current role at Kiplinger, Dan writes about markets and macroeconomics.

Dan holds a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and a master's degree from Columbia University.

Disclosure: Dan does not trade individual stocks or securities. He is eternally long the U.S equity market, primarily through tax-advantaged accounts.