Warren Buffett Bets $9 Billion On Travel

Think the travel business is looking strong for 2017? So apparently does Warren Buffett.  

Pooh-poohing fears of travel bans and Mexican walls, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway fund bet big—$9 billion big—on airline stocks in the last quarter of 2016, it revealed in its 13F-form filed yesterday.  

Berkshire increased its holdings in American (NASDAQ:AAL), Delta (NYSE:DAL) and United (NYSE:UAL), and invested for the first time in Southwest (NYSE:LUV)—for a whopping total investment of about $9.4 billion in the four major airlines. That’s about 6.5% of Berkshire’s total portfolio. 

Buffett’s fund now controls 8.8% of American, 9.1% of United, 8.2% of Delta, and 7% of Southwest Airlines, according to SeekingAlpha.com http://seekingalpha.com/article/4046111-tracking-warren-buffetts-berkshire-hathaway-portfolio-q4-2016-update. 

Known as the Oracle of Omaha for his Midwestern, down-to-earth and highly successful approach to picking stocks, Buffett saw his Berkshire Hathaway fund’s stock holdings increase almost 15%, from $129 billion to $148 billion, in Q4 2016. This month that pushed him to become the-second wealthiest person in the world, with a total net worth of $73.9 billion, Wikipedia reported.