Warren Buffett Buys Into More Banks

Basically, the last of the Buy-and-Hold intrinsic value investors, Warren Buffett, through his investment entities Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) (BRK-B) 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) and Wells Fargo (WFC) 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), SunTrust Banks Inc. (STI), Bank of America (BAC) and Goldman Sachs (GS) remained unchanged during 1Q09.

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

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