Warren Buffett has asked the Fed if he can own more than 10% of Wells Fargo
Billionaire investor Warren Buffett. Bill Pugliano/Getty Images
Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway now own more than 10% of America's biggest bank.
The famed investor applied to the Federal Reserve on Friday to increase his firm's stake in Wells Fargo above 10%, according to a filing obtained by Business Insider.
Hitting the 10% level automatically requires a disclosure from the investor in order to hold such a large stake.
The filing indicates that Buffett's stake first passed the threshold on March 1 of this year. As of that point Berkshire owned 10.012% of the bank, which is America's largest based on market cap, triggering the review.
In the application, Berkshire said that it did not buy new shares, but hit the threshold due to the buyback program of Wells.
"Berkshire's purchases of Wells Fargo shares of common stock were made for long-term investment purposes," said the filing.
"Berkshire's acquisitions constituted less than 10% of the outstanding shares prior to share repurchases that were effected by Wells Fargo."
Going forward, the filing also indicated that Buffett has no plans at the moment to buy more shares of the bank, but has his eye on the stock nonetheless.
"Berkshire does not have any present intention to acquire additional shares of common stock of Wells Fargo," said the filing. "However, Berkshire routinely assesses market conditions and may decide to purchase additional shares of common stock of Wells Fargo based on its evaluation of the investment opportunity presented by such purchases."
The filing states that Buffett and Berkshire have not purchased shares of Wells since October 21, 2015. He currently holds 506,308,470 shares of the bank, according to the filing.
Additionally, the filing said that Buffett and Berkshire have no plans to alter the business strategy of Wells Fargo.
Wells Fargo is among Buffett's largest investments, called the "Big Four" stocks, along with IBM, Coca-Cola, and American Express. According to Bloomberg, his investment in Wells is worth $23 billion as of the stock's closing price on Friday.
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