Hedge funds including Renaissance Technologies, DE Shaw, and Bridgewater bought stock in Berkshire Hathaway worth more than $900 million in the second quarter of the year, according to a report by The Financial Times.
The report cites securities filings as revealing that quant funds dominated the list of shareholders adding to their holdings in Warren Buffet’s conglomerate during Q2 with the computer-driven investment groups reportedly seeing Berkshire Hathaway’s shares as relatively inexpensive based on its earnings compared with many other companies.
The funds have primarily purchased Berkshire’s class B stock, which carries fractional economic and voting rights compared with A shares.
Research from Goldman Sachs reveals that in total, twenty hedge funds that did not hold Berkshire in the first quarter acquired shares in the company during June. Of the companies that comprise the the Russell 1000 index, only data centre operator Switch attracted a bigger influx of new hedge fund investors in the same period.
As well as finding favour with quant funds, Berkshire Hathaway has also attracted long-short fund managers, including Hudson Bay Capital Management and Bronte Capital, who acquired 745,000 and 365,649 shares respectively during the second quarter.
