Berkshire Hathaway sold more than 75% of its stock holdings in Amazon (AMZN) in the fourth quarter, a concerning mark for the e-commerce giant. The firm is now opting for a new investment with its return from the AMZN sales. Indeed, Berkshire Hathaway acquired 5.1 million shares of media publishing company The New York Times (NYT) in the three months through December, a stake worth $351.7 million at year-end, according to a regulatory filing Tuesday.
The move is also notable because it comes five years after Warren Buffett sold off all of Berkshire Hathaway’s newspapers and predicted unending declines for most of the industry. The reignited faith in a newspaper giant like The New York Times (NYT) fueled investors’ belief that the stock would rally.
NYT rose 1.8% to $75.39 in early trading on Wednesday at 8:33 a.m. in New York, rising an additional 1% as of 12 pm. Amazon (AMZN), meanwhile, is up over 2% at press time. In the last quarter, former CEO Warren Buffett made several big moves for Berkshire Hathaway before his retirement. Outside of the AMZN sale and NYT buy, Berkshire continued trimming its stakes in Bank of America Corp. and Apple Inc. during the fourth quarter, bringing them to 7.1% and 1.5%, respectively. Buffett started cutting those positions in 2024.
Buffett also increased Berkshire’s stakes in oil producer Chevron Corp. and insurance firm Chubb Ltd. during the period, to 6.5% and 8.7%, respectively. Oil stocks have been in the spotlight since the United States’ actions in Venezuela. CVX and XOM have both climbed double digits in the past month, and Berkshire Hathaway appearingly anticipates more growth ahead.