Warren Buffett just ordered some pizza.
Specifically, the noted investor is making a bet on Domino’s Pizza. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway last month revealed that it had acquired 1.3 million shares for about $549 million.
The acquisition made a few headlines, given Buffett’s fame among the investment community. The investment fits generally with his strategy to buy up shares in companies he understands. And he has historically bought up food and beverage company stock, or the companies themselves.
Yet it’s relatively rare for Buffett to make this sort of investment in a restaurant stock. While the Oracle of Omaha is a noted lover of McDonald’s, he rarely buys up stock in restaurant companies.
Berkshire helped finance Burger King’s 2014 acquisition of Tim Hortons and the investment company held onto that stock until 2020. It owned some McDonald’s stock briefly in the 1990s and Buffett has said that he regrets selling, which is likely obvious given the fast-food giant’s consistent performance in the nearly three decades since.
Berkshire does own Dairy Queen, which it acquired in 1997. Earlier this year, Berkshire bought up the remaining shares of the truck stop chain Pilot Flying J, which operates a number of different restaurants.
Berkshire does own stock in a few companies that do business with restaurants, notably Coca-Cola and Kraft Heinz, not to mention a few insurance companies.
Buffett’s interest unsurprisingly had an impact on Domino’s stock. Shares in the company rose about 10% after word emerged of Berkshire’s investment in the company, before a pullback on Monday.
Yet the investment has put a nice capstone on a decent year for the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based pizza chain. Despite a consumer that has largely shifted away from fast-food restaurants—and from pizza delivery in particular—the chain has largely outperformed its rivals. The company’s stock is up 13% so far this year.
Domino’s can probably expect Buffett to be an investor for a while. Despite his quick sale of McDonald’s stock in the 1990s, he typically holds onto shares for years.
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