Friday, November 15, 2013

Berkshire Hathaway Takes A Big Exxon Mobil Stake, Adds to Diabetes/Kidney Failure Bet (XOM; DVA)

Diabetes and hypertension are the two largest preventable causes of kidney disease bad enough to require dialysis.
From ValueWalk:
Berkshire Hathaway’s latest 13F regulatory filing reveals quite a sizeable stake in Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE:XOM) taken during the September quarter. Warren Buffett’s firm also increased its position in DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA) and sold millions of shares of ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP)....

...Position increases
The firm also added almost 1.5 million shares of DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc (NYSE:DVA) during the quarter. Other position increases from Berkshire Hathaway during the September quarter include Suncor Energy Inc. (NYSE:SU), U.S. Bancorp (NYSE:USB), Verisign, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSN) and The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation (NYSE:BK)....MORE
I've mentioned DVA a few times,  from our Oct. 2, 2012 post "Buffett Bets on the Boomers: End Stage Renal Disease (BRK.B; DVA)":
Around ten years ago a sharp young analyst gave me his five-minute kidneys and dialysis pitch. It made quite an impression on me, I remember it to this day. Unfortunately for him and his firm we were just coming off the Dotbomb crash and everything looked really cheap so I filed the idea under "stuff I'll get to".
Davita is up seven-fold since that day, $103.44 at the close. Fresenius, the largest in the industry is up ten-bagger in ten years, no lost decade there....
After a 2:1 split the stock is at $118 equivalent.