In case you missed it, this past Monday, Nov. 16, was arguably the most important day of the entire quarter for investors. That’s because it marked the release of 13F filings from money managers with $100 or million in assets under management.
In simple terms, a 13F provides Wall Street and retail investors with an under-the-hood look at what the brightest money managers were up to during the previous quarter. Even though the data provided is, at minimum, six weeks old, it nevertheless offers clues as to what trends and stocks are dominating interest among the most heralded investors.
Within the investment community, there’s probably not a money manager more closely followed than Warren Buffett. The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway has, after all, delivered a greater than 2,700,000% return for shareholders over the past 55 years. What Buffett is buying and selling is usually of great interest.
In the most recent quarter, Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F certainly provided its fair share of surprises. Not including what we knew prior to Nov. 16 via Securities and Exchange Commission filings, here are the five biggest surprises.
1. Berkshire goes all in on Big Pharma
Certainly the biggest eyebrow-raising moment was finding out that Buffett’s company had taken stakes in Big Pharma stocks Merck, Pfizer, AbbVie, and Bristol Myers Squibb. It’s no secret that the race to a coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine could be a big moneymaking event, and it appears Berkshire Hathaway wanted its piece of the pie.
