After a five-month hiatus, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) has commenced its purchases of Occidental Petroleum Corp (OXY.N) shares increasing its stake in the oil company to approximately 22.2%, a regulatory filing reported on Tuesday.
In accord with the filing, Berkshire paid nearly $355 million for shares of 5.8 million Occidental between March 3 and 7.
Berkshire announced the purchases for the very first time since last September. It had a 21.4% stake at the end of last year.
In August, Berkshire won permission from the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to buy up to 50% of Occidental’s common stock.
Based on Tuesday’s closing price of $60.85, Buffet’s Company has an ownership of roughly 200.2 million Occidental stocks valued at $12.2 billion.
Those shares would yield about $144 million yearly dividends, after a 38% increase that Occidental announced a month ago.
Berkshire also holds $10 billion in Occidental preferred stock, which pays $800 million in yearly dividends, as well as warrants to purchase an additional $5 billion in common stock.
Occidental finished January with roughly 900 million shares outstanding.
Berkshire began purchasing large quantities of the Houston-based company’s stock in the previous year.
After its stake exceeded 20%, Berkshire introduced the equity method of accounting for its holdings and now reports its share of Occidental’s results with its own.
Accounting rules often include the equity method above the 20% cutoff, reflecting the holder’s potential for significant influence.
