Shares of Royalty Pharma plc (NASDAQ: RPRX) are up about 4.0% this morning after Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway announced a $475 million investment in the U.S. company that buys drug royalties.
Other changes to Berkshire’s investment portfolio in Q3
The regulatory filing late on Monday that detailed where Berkshire was invested as of September 30th also disclosed Buffet to have sold the entire stake in Merck & Co. The conglomerate also slashed its positions in other notable pharmaceutical names, including Bristol-Myers and AbbVie.
Buffet’s picks are of particular interest for global investors who see where he puts his money as a vote of confidence. Not everything in the regulatory filing, however, is Buffet’s call as his investment managers, Ted Weschler and Todd Combs also make many of the buy and sell decisions.
The news comes a week after Berkshire Hathaway reported its financial results for the third quarter that beat Wall Street estimates for earnings and revenue. Operating earnings, however, came in lower-than-expected.
Buffet was a net seller of equities in the third quarter
Keeping in line with the tradition, the billionaire long-term investor downsized Berkshire’s exposure to the equity market in the third quarter to benefit from stretched valuations and record highs.
As of the end of September, the American multinational had $310.7 billion in equity holdings after selling $2.0 billion more in stocks than it bought in the third quarter.
Other changes to Berkshire’s investment portfolio in Q3 include a $99 million position in Floor & Décor while Organon & Co was eliminated completely. Buffet also doesn’t have exposure to Liberty Global plc anymore.
In the prior quarter, he became the largest shareholder in Brazil’s Nubank.
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