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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway on Monday unveiled $814 million in investments in three U.S. homebuilders, betting on an industry benefiting from supply shortages.
Berkshire disclosed that it has purchased 6 million DR Horton shares (valued at approximately $726 million as of the end of the second quarter), 152,572 Lennar shares and 11,112 NVR shares.
Shares of homebuilders and companies that serve the industry have rallied this year after a tough 2022 when rising interest rates dampened demand.
However, while higher mortgage rates have slowed existing home sales, new home sales have remained surprisingly strong due to limited supply.
Berkshire Hathaway already has a large presence in the real estate industry. The company’s subsidiaries include manufacturers of flooring, paint, insulation, roofing and modular homes. Those businesses have underperformed this year, with revenues down 12% in the first half.
Buying DR Horton stock would make Berkshire Hathaway one of the company’s 10 largest shareholders, with a stake of about 1.8%.
It’s not clear from the disclosures whether Buffett directed the purchases himself, or if they were made by one of his two investment lieutenants, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler.
Analysts who follow Berkshire generally agree that smaller stock purchases — those worth $1 billion or less — were made by Combs or Weschler.
Buffett’s investments in the three stocks came during relatively quiet times, with the famous investor selling shares worth billions more than he bought.
He has invested most of his gains in relatively higher-yielding U.S. Treasuries, and the company has a near-record cash pile of $147 billion.
Berkshire also increased its stake in Capital One and oil producer Occidental Petroleum.
The investment in Capital One, one of the largest U.S. issuers of Visa and Mastercard credit cards, may signal that Berkshire remains reassured about the health of U.S. consumers even as the economy slows. Berkshire Hathaway increased its stake by more than 25%, with $1.4 billion worth of stock at the end of the quarter.
Berkshire also revealed that it has cut stakes in video game maker Activision Blizzard, oil giant Chevron, automaker General Motors, industrial conglomerate Celanese and life insurer Universal Life.
At the same time, the group fully exited investments in healthcare group McKesson, insurer Marsh & McLennan and Vitese Energy.
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