Berkshire Hathaway Buys More Sirius XM Stock, Sells DaVita Shares in Recent Days

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Berkshire Hathaway bought about $106 million of stock in Sirius XM Holdings and sold around $230 million of DaVita shares in recent days, according to Form 4 filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Monday.

Berkshire bought five million shares of Sirius XM, the satellite radio company, during the three trading sessions ending Monday, paying an average price of about $21.25 a share. Berkshire now holds 124.8 million shares worth $2.6 billion, a roughly 37% stake in the company.

Berkshire appears to have taken advantage of weakness in the stock since it reported second-quarter profits last week. The shares ended Monday at $21.62, up 2.1%, but are down 8% in the past week.

Berkshire has held a stake in the company—and a former tracking stock for Sirius XM—for several years, and it has been a poor investment with the stock down more than 50% in the past two years. Investors worry about subscriber losses, an aging subscriber base, and alternatives to the company’s core in-car radio service.

These are Berkshire’s first purchases of Sirius XM stock since early February.

Berkshire sold about 1.6 million shares of DaVita this past Thursday at an average price of $140.61, reducing its stake to 32.2 million shares worth about $4.5 billion. Berkshire holds a roughly 42% interest in the kidney dialysis company.

Both the Sirius XM and DaVita holdings are believed to be managed by Berkshire investment manager Ted Weschler, who works with CEO Warren Buffett in running Berkshire’s nearly $300 billion equity portfolio. Weschler and Todd Combs run about 10% of the portfolio, with Buffett handling the rest.

DaVita shares ended Monday at around $139.50.

Write to Andrew Bary at andrew.bary@barrons.com