(Bloomberg) -- Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. bought roughly $813 million worth of Bank of America Corp. stock, piling more funds into the lender amid its 31% slump this year.
Berkshire purchased roughly 33.9 million of the company’s shares this week, boosting its stake by more than 3% to about 981.7 million shares, according to a regulatory filing Wednesday. Buffett’s conglomerate added the shares at an average price of $23.99.
Berkshire is ramping up its bet on Bank of America after receiving the green light from the Federal Reserve when its holdings surpassed a 10% ownership level, a key threshold requiring regulatory review. Buffett asked policy makers last year for permission to boost the stake, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond issued a no-objection letter on April 20, according to a spokesperson.
Berkshire’s Bank of America stake, which started from preferred stock and warrants, has transformed into one of the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate’s largest holdings. At the end of March, it was Berkshire’s second-largest by market , behind Apple Inc.
Berkshire, which invests in multiple banks, reduced some of those holdings in the first quarter, including wagers on Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. The firm will report second-quarter changes to those stakes within the next month.
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