Buffett's Berkshire Acquires ExxonMobil Stake

Billionaire Warren Buffett's company bought a nearly $60 million stake in Exxon Mobil Corp., trimmed holdings in oil rival ConocoPhillips and nearly doubled its stake in Wal-Mart Stores Inc. during the latest quarter.

Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. disclosed the changes to its $59.7 billion U.S. stock portfolio in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Monday.

During the quarter ended Sept. 30, Berkshire Hathaway bought nearly 855,000 shares of Exxon Mobil. Its stake in ConocoPhillips was cut from more than 64 million shares at the end of June to more than 57 million shares, valued at nearly $2.6 billion.

Berkshire Hathaway's stake in Wal-Mart, valued at $1.65 billion, stood at 33.6 million shares at the end of September, up from nearly 20 million at the end of June.

A separate filing Monday by the Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation showed it raised its stake in Berkshire Hathaway to more than 1.6 million Class B shares, worth $3,431 apiece, from 1.25 million. Those shares are to be split 50-to-1 under Berkshire Hathaway's Nov. 3 deal to acquire Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., the nation's second-largest railroad. Berkshire has agreed to pay $26.3 billion in cash and stock for the 77.4 percent of the company it doesn't now own, valuing the entire company at $34 billion.

Buffett has been a key donor to the Gates Foundation, with plans to give 10 million Class B shares in a series of annual gifts. Bill Gates, Microsoft Corp.'s co-founder, is a friend and philanthropic ally of Buffett.

Meanwhile, the Gates Foundation changed holdings of several other stocks between June 30 and Sept. 30, including:

— Increasing its stake in McDonald's Corp. to 7.4 million shares from 6.9 million;

— Boosting its stake in Coca-Cola Co. to 6.9 million shares from 5.7 million;

— Raising its ownership of trash hauler Waste Management Inc. to 15.7 million shares from 7.8 million;