Warren Buffett's company dumps another 5 million shares of printer maker HP
Omaha (AP): Investors soon won't be able to follow Warren Buffett's every move in HP's stock if the billionaire's company keeps selling off shares of the printer and computer maker.
Berkshire Hathaway's ownership of HP Inc. is about to drop below 10 per cent after it sold nearly 5 million shares, according to a regulatory filing by Buffett's company late Monday.
The Securities and Exchange Commission requires investors who own less than 10 per cent of a company to report their company holdings only on a quarterly basis rather than big investors who must disclose their actions closer to the time of a so-called "triggering" event, which can mean buying or selling shares.
Many investors do watch Buffett's moves closely because of his extremely successful track record over the years.
Not that long ago, Berkshire owned more than 12 per cent of HP's stock before it started to trim its stake last month. Now it's down to 10.2 per cent after several stock sales of the Palo Alto, California, company.
In the past 30 days, shares of HP Inc. have tumbled nearly 14 per cent, but there has been a fairly broad sell-off across the tech sector. In the same span, shares of Apple Inc. have fallen 9 per cent. But HP is still one of the biggest decliners among peers.
Buffett may be doing more than just trimming the investment, but he doesn't comment on stock sales like this any more than what he's required to disclose because he doesn't want to tip his hand while Berkshire might still be selling. He didn't immediately respond to questions Tuesday on these latest sales.
Berkshire amassed its HP stake early last year. Even after the latest sales, Buffett's Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate still held more than 100.9 million shares. Altogether, Berkshire has sold just over 20 million shares in the past month.
Throughout his investment career, Buffett has famously resisted investing in tech companies because he said he couldn't confidently pick out the long-term winners. But in recent years, Berkshire has bought a massive stake in Apple that ranks as the largest investment in its USD 350 billion portfolio. Buffett has said he considers Apple a consumer products company with extremely loyal customers, and he can understand that kind of business.
Besides investments, Berkshire owns an eclectic mix of companies, including Geico insurance, BNSF railroad, several major utilities and an assortment of manufacturing and retail businesses including well-known brands like Dairy Queen, See's Candy and Helzberg Diamonds.
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SC refuses urgent listing of plea for FIR against Justice Yashwant Varma in cash row
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to list for urgent hearing a plea seeking the registration of an FIR against the Allahabad High Court's Justice Yashwant Varma in connection with the cash discovery row.
A bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih asked lawyer and petitioner Mathews Nedumpara to follow the mentioning procedure.
"Please go through the mentioning procedure," the CJI said.
Former CJI Sanjiv Khanna had said no to oral mentioning for urgent listing and hearing of cases and said that the lawyers or the litigants will have to write an email and move the apex court registry first.
After an in-house inquiry panel indicted the judge, the former CJI had nudged Justice Varma to resign. The ex-CJI wrote to President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi after Justice Varma refused to resign.
The petition, filed by Nedumpara and three others, called for immediate initiation of criminal proceedings, saying the in-house committee found the allegations against Justice Varma to be prima facie true.
The plea emphasised that while the internal inquiry might lead to judicial disciplinary action, it was no substitute for a criminal investigation under the applicable statutes.
In March, the same petitioners had approached the apex court, challenging the in-house inquiry and demanding a formal police investigation.
However, the top court had then dismissed the plea as premature, citing the pending nature of the internal proceedings.
With the inquiry now concluded, the petitioners asserted that a delay in criminal action was no longer tenable.
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