What's Next for Buffett and Berkshire?

• By the tickerspy.com Staff
• On 7:51 am EST, Monday November 2, 2009

Warren Buffett's closely watched firm Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A - News, BRK-B - News) will be reporting Q3 results in the coming days, but serious Buffett watchers are looking ahead to the disclosure of Berkshire's end-of-Q3 holdings, which are set to be made public in less than two weeks. As always, investors are wondering where the billionaire is placing his bets now.

Despite facing some challenges, Buffett did very well during the market turmoil a year ago, picking up blue chip shares at bargain basement prices via "rescue" investments when fear levels were at their highest. David Sokol, a member of Buffett's inner circle and the head of Berkshire's energy-related businesses, recently told CNBC that the last 18 months had been the "most successful" of the billionaire Buffett's storied career.

A look at the performance of Buffett's holdings from the start of Q3 shows some of the reason why. During that period, Buffett has seen big gains from names like American Express (NYSE: AXP - News), U.S. Bancorp (NYSE: USB - News), Costco (NASDAQ: COST - News), and Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC - News). Each of the stocks is up by more than 20% since the start of Q3.

Buffett also made a special investment (not listed among Berkshire's publicly traded holdings) in Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS - News) at the height of the crisis that has reaped huge gains.

There's no telling if Buffett's new holdings, to be announced mid-month, will contain any surprises, but it is quite likely that he'll hold steady with long-standing positions in many of his favorite names like Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO - News), Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT - News), and Proctor & Gamble (NYSE: PG - News).

Finally, investors will want to see whether Buffett is finding stocks attractive enough to make buys on the open market after such a significant run higher in stocks. The revelation of substantial buying activity in Buffett's upcoming disclosure would likely send a bullish signal that would reverberate across the entire market.

Investors won't be sure of where Buffett stands now until mid-month, when the deadline for end-of-Q3 filings hits. At tickerspy.com, members can track Berkshire's latest holdings, see a graph of their combined performance, and be notified when new holdings are made public.

Pro portfolio performance is based on institutions' top-15 holdings as disclosed in quarter-end filings with the SEC. Pro performance does not take into account additional holdings beyond the top 15 nor does it include positions that are not required to be disclosed by the SEC. As such, Pro portfolio performance should be considered an approximation and not a precise record of how an institution has performed over time.

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