Warren Buffett's reputation as the world's greatest living investor has been challenged recently, and the Oracle of Omaha's latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission is unlikely to heal the damage. Between March and September, Mr. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. quadrupled its stake in ConocoPhillips Co. – an oil producer whose share price has been cut in half since June, along with the price of crude oil.
But as James Surowiecki, writing on the New Yorker's Balance Sheet blog noted, interest in Mr. Buffett's stock picks will likely pick up with the next quarterly filing. That's when he will report the stock purchases he made in October, around the time he penned an op-ed piece in the New York Times. “If prices keep looking attractive,” Mr. Buffett said in the article, “my non-Berkshire net worth will soon be 100 per cent in United States equities.”
