Warren Buffett speaks at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska on May 4, 2024.
CNBC
Warren Buffett Finally Revealed His Secret Stock Picks in a New Regulatory Document, and It’s an Insurance Company Chubb.
His conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway bought nearly 26 million shares of Zurich-based Chubb for a $6.7 billion stake. The property and casualty insurer became Berkshire’s ninth-largest holding at the end of March.
Chubb shares jumped nearly 7% in extended trading after news of Berkshire’s stake. The stock is up about 12% year to date.
Insurance company Ace Limited acquired the original Chubb in 2016 for $29.5 billion in cash and stock, and the combined company adopted the Chubb name. Evan Greenberg, CEO of Chubb, is the son of Maurice Greenberg, former chairman and CEO of insurance giant American International Group.
Shared by Chubb over the past year.
Headquartered in Omaha, Berkshire has a large presence in the insurance industry, from auto insurance crown jewel Geico to reinsurance giant General Re to a host of home and life insurance services. In 2022, the conglomerate also acquired Alleghany Insurance Company for $11.6 billion.
Berkshire recently exited positions in Markel And Globe Life in the same industry.
The secret is revealed
Berkshire has kept the purchase secret for two straight quarters. Berkshire has been provided with confidential information to keep information about one or more of its stock holdings confidential.
The topic of this mysterious holding did not come up at Berkshire’s annual meeting in Omaha earlier this month.
Many speculated that the mystery buy could be bank shares as the conglomerate’s underlying asset value for its “banking, insurance and finance” assets jumped $1.4 billion in the first quarter after rising $3.59 billion in the second half of last year. according to individual Berkshire documentation.
It is relatively rare for Berkshire to request such treatment. The last time the company kept a purchase confidential was when it bought Chevron And Verizon in 2020.