Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, Graham Holdings Co (GHC) Complete Stock Swap Deal

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has completed the swap assets deal with Graham Holdings Co (NYSE:GHC). In a newly amended filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway disclosed owning 107,575 Class B common stock shares of Graham Holdings, equal to 1.72 % of the stock, while the previous holding contained 1.72 million shares, equal to 27.7% of the outstanding stock.

Berkshire Hathaway

In a news release, the company revealed that they have completed a deal in which Berkshire acquired a wholly-owned subsidiary of Graham Holdings, including WPLG, a Miami-based television station, 2,107 Class A Berkshire shares and 1,278 Class B Berkshire shares owned by Graham Holdings and $327.7 million in cash, in exchange for about 1.62 million shares of Graham Holdings Class B common stock owned by Berkshire Hathaway.

Graham Holdings Company (NYSE: GHC) is an education and media company engaged in operating educational services, television broadcasting, cable systems and online, print and local TV news. The company has a market cap of $5.38 billion, and pays a quarterly dividend of $2.55, or $10.2 on an annualized basis. It is traded at a trailing Price to Earnings (P/E) ratio of 18.15xx and has a beta of 1.28.

For the first quarter of 2014, the company posted a 2% increase in revenue to $840.6 million, compared to $820.6 million in the first quarter of 2013. It reported income from continuing operations attributable to common shares of $131.0 million, or $17.65 per share, compared to $21.7 million, or $2.92 per share, in the same period of 2013. Also, the company recently acquired Joyce/Dayton Corp., which is engaged in manufacturing of screw jacks and other linear motion systems.

The value of Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio was around $105.8 billion at the end of the first quarter of 2014. Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE:WFC) is represented as the largest holding, in which Berkshire owns 463.46 million shares. It is followed by The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO), in which the fund disclosed ownership of 400.0 million shares. The third largest position is occupied by American Express Company (NYSE:AXP), where Berkshire holds 151.61 million shares.

Disclosure: none