Both CNN and the Wall Street Journal call it a "mystery" that's now been solved: Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has revealed a major stake that's been kept hush-hush since last year. The outlets report that the investment is in global insurance giant Chubb, and that Buffett's holding company has acquired 26 million shares, worth about $6.7 billion as of the end of March, per an SEC filing on Wednesday. This means that Berkshire now owns about 6.4% of the publicly traded Chubb, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Per the Journal, "institutional investors who manage at least $100 million in US stocks and certain other equities must disclose their holdings as of the end of each quarter" to the SEC. But in Q3 and Q4 of 2023, Berkshire left out at least one holding from those disclosures, instead requesting "confidential treatment" from the SEC while it was still buying up shares in Chubb. The AP notes that welcoming Chubb into the fold isn't terribly surprising for Berkshire, which boasts a diverse portfolio and has always kept insurers, such as Geico and General Reinsurance, at its center.
What Berkshire plans to do next with Chubb remains to be seen. "We can't speculate whether Berkshire would pursue an outright acquisition of CB, but we note their business mixes are highly complementary," CFRA Research analyst Cathy Seifert tells the AP. Chubb has been in the news in recent months as the insurer for Baltimore's collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge, as well as for being the underwriter for former President Trump's $92 million appeal bond in the E. Jean Carroll case. The company's stock rose 8% in after-hours trading on Wednesday on the heels of Berkshire's Chubb news. (More Warren Buffett stories.)
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