Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) reported larger holdings of the Israeli pharmaceutical company Teva Pharmaceutical (NYSE: TEVA) for the first quarter. The conglomerate also increased its stake on St. Louis-based agricultural product giant Monsanto (NYSE: MON)
Berkshire more than doubled its stake in Teva, to 40 million shares, in the first three months of this year after first reporting a stake of 18.8 million shares in the fourth quarter of last year. The changes are reflected in Berkshire's latest regulatory filing on Tuesday, but they only report holdings up to the end of March.
Berkshire also reported adding 7.3 million shares of Monsanto in the first quarter, to total 19 million shares. The Justice Department recently approved German conglomerate Bayer AG's $62 billion deal to buy Monsanto. Shares of Monsanto rose 0.1% before the bell.
Buffett told the media earlier this month Berkshire had exited its stake in International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) and had added 75 million shares of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) in the quarter.
This week, Teva announced the publication of data from the Phase III HALO study evaluating the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of both quarterly (every three months) and monthly subcutaneous dosing regimens of fremanezumab for the prevention of episodic migraine.
Berkshire began Wednesday trading down $500.00 to $295,700.00. As for Teva, its shares gained 71 cents, or 3.5%, to $21.01, and Monsanto added 14 cents to $125.43
