(Reuters circulated the following on January 21, 2009.)
NEW YORK Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) (BRKb.N) has raised its stake in Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp (BNI.N) to 21.8 percent, after spending about $271 million this month on shares of the second-largest U.S. railroad.
Berkshire's National Indemnity Co unit bought 4.36 million Burlington Northern shares from Jan. 15-20, paying between $61.65 and $63.43 per share, according to a filing late Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Berkshire now owns 74,452,029 Burlington Northern shares, valued at $4.56 billion based on Tuesday's closing price of $61.25, the filing shows.
The 21.8 percent stake is based on Burlington Northern's reported shares outstanding, and is up from the 20.5 percent that Berkshire said it previously held.
Berkshire has said it might boost its stake in Burlington Northern to 25 percent or more. It acquired much of its stake in the railroad prior to 2008, when Burlington Northern shares typically traded in the $70s and $80s.
Buffett told shareholders at Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire's annual meeting in May 2007 that the railroad business' competitive prospects had improved and are better than they were 30 years earlier.
Burlington Northern is expected to report quarterly results later Wednesday.
