Buffett's Berkshire stays away from Snap, but not these Funds

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) hiked its stake in Apple (AAPL) by more than 125% to 129.4 million shares in the Q1, and made modest changes to its airline holdings while avoiding Snapchat parent Snap (SNAP), which went public in March.

Meanwhile, Soros Fund Management bought 1.7 million shares of Snap, joining Appaloosa Management and Third Point. Soros also dissolved his firm's positions in Amazon (AMZN) and Delta Air Lines (DAL), and added to its stake in Facebook (FB).

David Einhorn's Greenlight Capital trimmed its Apple holdings to 4.2 million shares from 6.1 million in Q1, while more than quadrupling its stake in General Motors (GM) to 55 million shares from 13 million.

In Q1, Berkshire grew its American Airlines (AA) stake to 49.3 million shares, up 8.4% vs the previous quarter, and its investment in Southwest Airlines (LUV) to 47.7 million, up 10.4%. It trimmed its position in Delta to 55 million shares, down 8.3%, while keeping its holdings in United Airlines (UAL) steady at 28.9 million.

The regulatory filing confirmed news from early May that Berkshire's Buffett busily dumped tech giant IBM (IBM) in Q1. It had 64.6 million shares left at quarter-end, down 20%. (Even IBM Retirement Fund's unloaded 70,000 shares of IBM, leaving it with 12,451 IBM shares in Q1, according to the fund's 13F filing on May 10.)

Meanwhile, the conglomerate's massive long-term stakes in Coca-Cola (KO), American Express (AXP) and Kraft Heinz (KHC) were left basically unchanged.

Buffett had already said Berkshire more than doubled its Apple holdings in Q1, giving it a 2.5% stake in the iPhone maker's outstanding shares. Berkshire initiated a position in Apple, worth $1.1 billion, in Q1 2016 and doubled down on Apple as the year progressed.

By contrast, Appaloosa Management slashed its stake in 2017's best-performing Dow component Apple by a third, to 300,000 shares, and trimmed Facebook by 12.6%, to 1.9 million shares in Q1, according to filings from Friday. The company also scooped up 100,000 shares of Snap, which tanked 17.5% last week on a dismal debut earnings reports following its March IPO.

Similarly, Third Point exited its 1.85 million-share stake in Apple during Q1, while buying 2.25 million shares of Snap.

Shares of Berkshire closed up 0.3% at 163.76 on the stock market today. Apple dipped 0.3%, down from Friday's fresh record high, and Snap rallied 8.4%, after last week's plunge. Facebook eased 0.1%, and IBM added 0.7%.

Source: Bloomberg Pro Terminal

Jr Trader Alexander Kumanov

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