Warren Buffett speaks during Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska on May 4, 2024.
CNBC
Warren Buffett has finally revealed his secret stock picks in a new regulatory filing, and the insurance company Chubb.
His conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway bought nearly 26 million shares in Zurich-based Chubb for a stake worth $6.7 billion. The property and casualty insurer became Berkshire’s ninth-largest company at the end of March.
Chubb shares jumped nearly 7% in extended trading after news of Berkshire’s stake. The stock is up about 12% year to date.
Insurance company Ace Limited acquired the original Chubb in 2016 for $29.5 billion in cash and stock, and the combined company adopted the Chubb name. Evan Greenberg, CEO of Chubb, is the son of Maurice Greenberg, the former president and CEO of US insurance giant International Group.
See chart…
Chubb shares over the past year.
Omaha-based Berkshire has a large footprint in the insurance industry, from auto insurance gem Geico to reinsurance giant General Re and a slew of home and life insurance services. The group also acquired insurance company Alleghany for $11.6 billion in 2022.
Berkshire recently exited positions in Markel and Globe Life in the same industry.
Unravel the mystery
Berkshire has kept this purchase secret for three consecutive quarters. Berkshire was given confidential treatment to keep the details of one or more of its stock holdings secret.
The subject of this mysterious contract did not come up at Berkshire’s annual meeting in Omaha earlier this month.
Many have speculated that the secret purchase could be a bank stock as the group’s cost basis for holdings of “banking, insurance and finance” shares jumped by $1.4 billion in the first quarter after a $3.59 billion increase in the second half of last year. According to Berkshire Chapter filings.
It is relatively rare for Berkshire to require such treatment. The last time it kept its purchase secret was when it bought Chevron and Verizon in 2020.
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