Buffett Buys Into More Banks

Highlights include Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A - Analyst Report and BRK.B - Snapshot Report), U.S. Bancorp (USB - Analyst Report), Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC - Analyst Report), M&T Bank (MTB - Analyst Report), SunTrust Banks Inc. (STI - Snapshot Report), Bank of America Corp. (BAC - Analyst Report), Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS - Analyst Report), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ - Analyst Report) and Iron Mountain (IRM - Analyst Report).

Basically, the last of the Buy-and-Hold intrinsic value investors, Warren Buffett, through his investment entities Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A - Analyst Report and BRK.B - Snapshot Report) was out bargain-hunting during 1Q09.

While Berkshire officials are typically tight-lipped, based on documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission recently, Berkshire's holdings as of March 31, 2009 showed financials high on the list.

True to his comments made at Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting earlier this month -- where Mr.Buffett stated that US Bancorp (USB - Analyst Report) and Wells Fargo (WFC - Analyst Report) were extremely strong banks and that he would be willing to invest in them at current prices -- Berkshire bought nearly 12.4 million shares of Wells Fargo, up 4.3% to total 302.6 million shares, and purchased approximately 1.5 million shares of U.S. Bancorp, up 2.2% to total approximately 69.0 million shares. But the holdings of M&T Bank (MTB - Analyst Report), SunTrust Banks Inc. (STI - Snapshot Report), Bank of America (BAC - Analyst Report) and Goldman Sachs (GS - Analyst Report) remained unchanged during 1Q09.

As for non-financials, Berkshire bought 3.9 million shares of Johnson & Johnson (JNJ - Analyst Report), up 13.6% to total 32.5 million shares. And it appears that Berkshire closed out its entire holdings of Iron Mountain (IRM - Analyst Report) -- a total of 3.4 million shares.

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