Domino's, Pool Corp. Climb After Buffett's Berkshire Buys Stake

(RTTNews) - Shares of Domino's Pizza Inc. and swimming pool supplier Pool Corp. gained significantly in the extended trading in New York on Thursday after billionaire investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. took stake in them. In the pre-market activity, Domino's shares were moving up 8 percent and Pool shares were up 7 percent.

Meanwhile, the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate continued to cut its long-held investments in Apple Inc. and Bank of America Corp.

As per its quarterly 13F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, Berkshire acquired about 1.28 million shares in the pizza major valued about $549 million as of September 30. The company also initiated a holding in the pool equipment maker, buying 404,057 shares valued at $152.25 million.

Berkshire also sold nearly all its stake in cosmetics retailer Ulta Beauty Inc., following which the shares fell 4 percent in after-hours trading, and are down 6 percent in the pre-market activity as of this writing.

Meanwhile, Berkshire cut its stake in Apple in the third quarter to 300 million shares as on September 30 from 400 million.

Berkshire reportedly sold nearly half of its stake in Apple in August, immediately following the release of the tech major's quarterly results, citing China risk. The sale resulted in Berkshire divesting around 390 million Apple shares, equivalent to a net value of $75.5 billion.

In May also, Berkshire had trimmed a portion of its significant stake in Apple, reportedly citing tax reasons.

Berkshire had held 907.6 million, or 5.7 percent, of Apple's shares outstanding at the end of last year, valued at approximately $174.3 billion.

Further, the company sold 235 million shares of Bank of America stock. In October, Berkshire reduced its stake in the company to below the key 10 percent regulatory threshold. With this, Berkshire is no longer required to report its related transactions frequently.

Irrespective of these sales, Berkshire still remains Bank of America's biggest institutional investor.

For the year, Berkshire has sold $133.2 billion of stocks, mainly in Apple and Bank of America, among others, while it bought $5.8 billion worth shares.

The news comes as Berkshire is having a record cash pile of $325.2 billion as of September 30. The company had also halted repurchases of its own stock, for the first time since 2018.

On the NYSE, Domino's Pizza shares gained 7.8 percent in the after-hours trading to $469.99. In pre-market activity, the shares were at $471.50, up 8.15 percent.

On the Nasdaq, Pool Corp. was up 6.1 percent in the extended trading to reach $379.25. In pre-market activity, the shares were at $381.88, up 6.82 percent.