According to a new report by analysts at JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Waren Buffett’s holding company, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A/BRK.B), controls 3% of the entire Treasury Bill market.
Buffett now has $158 billion U.S. invested in Treasury Bills, or T-bills as they are known. A T-bill is a short-term debt obligation backed by the U.S. Treasury Department with a maturity of one-year or less.
Interest is paid on T-bills when they mature or expire. With interest rates elevated, T-bills are currently paying interest of between 5% and 6%, depending on the length of time to maturity.
Buffett has said that he favors investing Berkshire Hathaway’s excess cash in high-yielding Treasuries as he finds stock prices too expensive and potential acquisitions lacking.
At Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting in May, Buffett said the company had $182 billion U.S. in cash and T-bills, and he expects that amount to grow to more than $200 billion U.S. in the current second quarter.
“We’d love to spend it, but we won’t spend unless we think there’s really something that has very little risk and can make us a lot of money,” said Buffett.
The new report from JPMorgan states that Berkshire Hathaway now holds 3% of all T-bills issued by the U.S. Treasury Department, more than any other company or institution.
“Berkshire Hathaway currently holds more T-bills than international organizations, stablecoin issuers, offshore money-market funds, or local government investment pools,” said JPMorgan.
The JPMorgan analysts point out that Buffett is likely continuing to buy T-bills at a brisk pace and Berkshire Hathaway’s holding of the investment vehicle is probably continuing to grow.
Berkshire Hathaway’s Class B stock has risen 26% over the past 12 months and currently trades at $414.40 U.S. per share.
