Berkshire Hathaway buys another 9.9 million shares in Occidental

Berkshire Hathaway Inc, Berkshire Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc, said it has bought another 9.9 million shares of Occidental Petroleum Corp, giving it a 17.4% stake in the oil company.

Berkshire paid $582 million for the shares, which it bought between Wednesday and Friday, according to a Friday night filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to Refinitiv's data, the stake is about 60% larger than that of Vanguard, the next largest shareholder.

Berkshire also holds warrants to buy another 83.9 million Occidental shares for $5 billion.

Occidental's share price has doubled this year, benefiting from Berkshire's purchases as well as rising oil prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The Berkshire investment has prompted market speculation that Buffett's Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate might eventually buy all of Occidental.

In a June 23 research report, Truist Securities analyst Neal Dingmann saw a good chance of a Berkshire takeover when Occidental became an investment-grade credit, saying a purchase would help diversify Berkshire's energy portfolio.

Occidental has been reducing debt, which swelled when it bought Anadarko Petroleum Corp for $35.7 billion in 2019.

Berkshire bought $10 billion of Occidental preferred stock to help finance the purchase, and obtained the warrants at the time.

It had a $25.9 billion stake in Chevron Corp at the end of March.

Berkshire's share price has fallen 8% this year, compared with a 20% decline in Standard Poor's 500.

Buffett owns dozens of businesses, including the BNSF railroad, Geico car insurer and its namesake energy business, as well as stocks including Apple Inc and Bank of America Corp.