Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B) disclosed a new stake in Verizon Communications (VZ) during the fourth quarter, according to a 13-F securities filing.
Berkshire Hathaway now holds 147.6 million shares of Verizon, a stake valued at around $8.6 billion at the end of 2020, making it the 6th largest position in the famed stock picker's portfolio.
Verizon is the parent company of Yahoo Finance. Shares of Verizon were last trading 2.95% higher in the after-hours session near $55.75.
Berkshire Hathaway also disclosed new stakes in Chevron (CVX) and E.W. Scripps & Co. (SSP). Berkshire snapped up 48.4 million shares of Chevron and 23.07 million shares of E.W. Scripps in the quarter, the filing shows.
The filing also shows that Berkshire boosted its stakes in pharmaceutical companies including AbbVie (ABBV), Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY), and Merck (MRK), positions first disclosed in the third quarter of 2020. Berkshire sold all of its Pfizer (PFE) shares.
Elsewhere, Berkshire Hathaway exited its positions in JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and PNC Financial. Berkshire also cut its Wells Fargo (WFC) stake by about 58%, selling 74.95 million shares. Berkshire trimmed its position in US Bancorp too.
Berkshire also trimmed its stake in Apple (AAPL) by about 6%, selling 57.16 million shares, the filing shows. Apple is still Berkshire Hathaway’s largest stock holding.
Berkshire sold all of its shares in Barrick Gold (GOLD), a position first disclosed in the second quarter of 2020.
In the third quarter's 13-F filing, Berkshire noted that "confidential information" had been omitted from its public filing and filed separately with the SEC. That language was no longer in the most recent filing.
Julia La Roche is a correspondent for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter.