Warren Buffett's Burlington Northern Stake Nears 18% As Buying Accelerates

Warren Buffett's stake in Burlington Northern Santa Fe is approaching 18 percent after Berkshire Hathaway paid close to $74 million for nearly a million shares on Monday and Tuesday of this week.

That's on top of the roughly 750,000 shares Berkshire picked up over four days of buying last week. According to SEC disclosures, Berkshire adding to its stake in the freight railroad on six out of the seven trading days starting on January 7, taking only Friday the 11th off.

In a filing earlier this evening, Berkshire says it bought 141,400 shares at $78.18 each on Monday, paying $11.05 million. Then on Tuesday, Buffett's holding company made its biggest daily purchase in the recent series: 807,400 shares at $77.69 each, for a total price of $62.73 million.

Berkshire now holds 17.8 percent of Burlington's outstanding shares, and told the railroad last August it could go to 25 percent or more.

Berkshire Hathaway's Burlington Northern Buys This Month

Date	Shares Acquired	Price/Share	Total Price
Monday, January 7	29,600	$76.55	$2,265,880
Tuesday, January 8	240,000	$77.89	$18,693,600
Wednesday, January 9	435,700	$77.12	$33,601,184
Thursday, January 10	46,100	$77.78	$3,585,658
Monday, January 14	141,400	$78.18	$11,054,652
Tuesday, January 15	807,400	$77.69	$62,726,906
TOTAL	1,700,200		$131,927,880

Source: SEC Filings

Last year, Berkshire built its stake to 17.2 percent of Burlington's outstanding shares with a series of purchases from the spring through early-October.

Current prices:

Burlington Northern

Berkshire Hathaway

Berkshire shares have been taking a beating in recent weeks, but at least one well-known value investor he thinks they're a bargain at roughtly $126,000 each.

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