- EXCERPTS and IMAGES: Warren Buffett & Bill Gates - Keeping America Great
- Microsoft's Bill Gates Praises Apple's Steve Jobs For 'Saving the Company'
- Warren Buffett's $100,000 Offer and $500,000 Advice for Columbia Business School Students
- Warren Buffett and Bill Gates Share Their 'Optimism' With Eager Columbia Business Students
- Light the Lights! Buffett and Gates Prepare to Answer Students' Questions at Columbia
- Warren Buffett Ranked #14 On Forbes 'Most Powerful People' List
- Warren Buffett and the Crisis: 'Brilliant Moves Interspersed with Some Surprising Errors'
- Warren Buffett to Sell Stakes In Union Pacific & Norfolk Southern
- BNSF CEO: Buffett's Bid for Railroad "Warmly Received" In Washington
- Berkshire Hathaway's NetJets Furloughs 495 Pilots
RSS FEED
MOST SHARED
- Warren Buffett and Bill Gates Share Their 'Optimism' With Eager Columbia Business Students
- Pharma & Social Media
- Cities With the Most Home Price Reductions
- Warren Buffett's $100,000 Offer and $500,000 Advice for Columbia Business School Students
- Disney Profit, Sales Top Street Forecasts; Shares Jump
- China Fourth Quarter Growth Could Hit 10%: Official
- Disney CFO and Parks Chief to Swap Roles
- Housing Recovery 'Still In Uncharted Territory': HUD Secretary
- Despite Rhetoric, Obama Has Limited Options To Boost Jobs
- Microsoft's Bill Gates Praises Apple's Steve Jobs For 'Saving the Company'
- Gold Is a Bad Inflation Hedge—Like Oil: Stock Picker
- Intel's Andy Bryant Offers An Explanation
- US 'Actively Working' on Weaker Dollar: Fund Manager
- Options Boil on Biotech Buyout Rumors
- Warren Buffett's $100,000 Offer and $500,000 Advice for Columbia Business School Students
- Activision Blizzard's "Modern Warfare 2" Sales Break Records
- 5-Star Manager's 5 Stocks for Changing Markets
- What's The Forecast from Retailers? Proceed With Caution
- Job Market Politics to Keep Interest Rates Low
- AIG, Symbol of Crisis, Watches Its Stock Zoom Back
- Disney Profit, Sales Top Street Forecasts; Shares Jump
- Bill Gates Praises Apple's Jobs for 'Saving the Company'
- Cities With the Most Home Price Reductions
- Cramer: The Real Reason Stocks Fell Thursday
- Is Euphoric Market Ignoring Warning Signs?
- Video Game Sales Plunge, but Have They Hit Bottom?
- Despite Rhetoric, Obama Has Few Options to Boost Jobs
Warren Buffett Watch
Text Size 
 |
In a filing with the SEC made public just moments ago, Berkshire reveals that as of September 30 its controversial stake in the Chinese energy company had dropped to just 3.1%. That follows a flurry of selling in September that brought the holdings from from just under 10% when the month started.
All this month we've been following the declines in Berkshire's PetroChina stake through filings with the Hong Kong stock exchange. Today's U.S. filing was required because Berkshire is no longer a 5% owner of PetroChina.
Berkshire Hathaway's Disappearing PetroChina Holdings |
| Date | Days Elapsed | Shares Held | Stake | Change | Change/Day |
| July 12 | 2,313,504,000 | 10.96% | |||
| Aug. 29 | 48 | 2,051,107,000 | 9.72% | -279,297,000 | -5,818,688 |
| Sept. 6 | 8 | 1,884,654,700 | 8.93% | -166,452,300 | -20,806,538 |
| Sept. 13 | 7 | 1,687,730,000 | 7.99% | -196,924,700 | -28,132,100 |
| Sept. 21 | 8 | 1,470,601,000 | 6.97% | -217,129,000 | -27,141,125 |
| Sept. 25 | 4 | 1,148,269,000 | 5.44% | -322,332,000 | -80,583,000 |
| Sept. 30 | 5 | 652,875,000 | 3.09% | -495,394,000 | -99,078,800 |
As the table shows, the selling has been accelerating over the last few weeks, reaching an average selling rate of almost 100 million shares a day at the end of September.
This could be the last we hear for awhile. Berkshire is not required to reveal any additional sales since it owns less than 5% of the outstanding shares. For all we know, the entire stake may have been liquidated by now. Given the pace of selling, I wouldn't be surprised.
To catch up on the controversy surrounding Buffett's PetroChina holdings and what might be motivating the sales, check out some of the previous WBW posts on the subject.
- Buffett's PetroChina Stake Falls Below 7% as Sales Accelerate in September (October 8)
- Berkshire Hathaway's Controversial PetroChina Stake Falls Below 8% (September 28)
- Buffett's Been Selling More PetroChina Than You Might Have Thought (September 20)
- Warren Buffett Trims PetroChina Stake in Third Filing (September 20)
- Is Buffett Making a Statement or Making Money with PetroChina Sale? (September 12)
- Buffett Slightly Reduces Controversial PetroChina Stake (July 27)
Questions? Comments? Email me at
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes