Berkshire Hathaway Juggles Oil Stocks in 3Q

Warren Buffett’s company bought more than 40 million shares of Exxon Mobil and significantly reduced its ConocoPhillips investment during the third quarter.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. filed a quarterly update on its $92 billion U.S. stock portfolio Thursday with regulators. The two oil-company investments were the biggest changes revealed.

Berkshire reduced its ConocoPhillips holdings to 13.5 million shares at the end of September, down from 24.2 million shares in June.

These quarterly filings don’t differentiate between investments Buffett makes and investments other Berkshire executives make. So it can be hard to determine who is making the moves.

But the size of the Exxon investment suggests it was Buffett’s decision. Buffett has said investments smaller than $300 million are likely to be the work of other Berkshire managers.