Berkshire Boosts Amazon Stake 11%

Second quarter regulatory filings by Berkshire Hathaway show that the company grew its stake in online retailing behemoth Amazon by 11% to a level of more than $1 billion, according to a recent article in Bloomberg.

The investment, originally made in the first quarter by one of Buffett’s investing deputies Todd Combs or Ted Weschler, “showed how Berkshire’s view on technology companies has been shifting.”

Berkshire’s Amazon holdings are still dwarfed by its investment in Apple (which exceeded $49 billion at the end of the second quarter). The article notes that the stronger push into technology has been fueled in part by Combs and Weschler.

The article reports that Berkshire has also been favoring the banking industry in recent months, citing a 2.4% increase in the company’s investment in U.S. Bancorp (to $6.9 billion). It adds that Berkshire has been “piling into” JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America over the past year, but has cut its stake in Charter Communications by 5%, even as that company’s shares gained 14% during the quarter.