Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B-N, BRK.A-N) has acquired 5 million shares in UnitedHealth Group (UNH-N), a regulatory filing showed on Thursday, sending the health insurer’s stock up 7% in extended trading.
Billionaire investor Buffett owned about 1.18 million shares in UnitedHealth between 2006 and 2009, before selling his entire stake in 2010 amid a broader retreat from health insurers.
The investment comes as UnitedHealth faces soaring medical costs, federal investigations, the fallout of the killing of a top executive and a cyberattack last year.
The healthcare conglomerate has signaled prolonged pain with a new, far lower profit forecast as it sees billions of additional costs in the upcoming quarters.
Shares of the Dow component have slumped 46% so far this year.
Buffett’s conglomerate also said it sold 20 million shares of Apple (AAPL-Q), its largest stock holding, in the second quarter, reducing its stake to 280 million shares.
Berkshire also revealed it has bought the common stocks of security products provider Allegion (ALLE-N), home builder DR Horton (DHI-N), outdoor advertiser Lamar Advertising (LAMR-Q) and steel maker Nucor (NUE-N), and significantly increased its stake in homebuilder Lennar (LEN-N).
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