The 10F filing from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK.A)(NYSE: BRK.B) is probably one of, if not the, most anticipated on the entire American stock market.

The last time Berkshire Hathaway filed a 10F report, we covered some of Buffett's significant stock sales, as well as the far fewer buys.

So what does the latest report tell us?

What has Berkshire Hathaway been buying (and selling)?

Compared to the November 10F, this February's report was far tamer. However, Buffett was still a net seller of stocks over the three months to 31 December.

Here are some of Berkshire's major sales, according to WhaleWisdom:

• HP Inc (NYSE: HPQ), with Berkshire selling US$2.4 billion worth of stock
• Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), US$1.93 billion sold
• D.R. Horton Inc (NYSE: DHI), with US$710 million sold
• Paramount Global Inc (NASDAQ: PARA) with US$450 million sold
• Markel Group Inc (NYSE: MKL) with US$259 million sold

In contrast, Buffett's buys were a lot less enthusiastic:

• Chevron Corp (NYSE: CVX), with Berkshire buying US$2.36 billion worth of stock
• Occidental Petroleum Corp (NYSE: OXY), US$1.17 billion purchase
• Sirius XM Holdings Inc (NASDAQ: SIRI), US$167 million purchase

Buffett doubles down on big oil

This is an interesting report to go through. Buffett is famous for his buy-and-hold investing, once commenting that his favourite holding time for an investment is "forever". So it's interesting to see Berkshire trim its largest position (accounting for more than 50% of Berkshire's portfolio) in Apple. Of Course, US$1.9 billion is something of a drop in the bucket – Berkshire still owns almost US$166.5 billion worth of Apple stock.

But the sale is still significant, given what Buffett has previously said.

Also significant is Buffett's buyup of oil giant Chevron, as well as Occidental. Last quarter's 10F filing revealed that Berkshire had offloaded shares in Chevron. As such, it's notable to see Buffett buying them back up, as well as shares in fellow oil stock Occidental. The recent volatility in oil prices (and thus the share prices of oil stocks) could have something to do with this.

Buffett's other major sale was in tech company HP. HP shares haven't gone anywhere for a while but did rally around 20% between October and December last year. So perhaps this gave Buffett an excuse to sell a big chunk of shares.

Foolish takeaway

Buffett's portfolio moves often seem to contradict the advice that he so generously showers on ordinary investors. Because we rarely get explanations or insights into Buffett's thinking (and if so, they usually come months later), I tend to think it's best to take what Buffett says as gospel advice, rather than what he does.

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Don't believe for one second that Warren Buffett doesn't think about dividends. In his latest letter to Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) (NYSE: BRK.B) shareholders, he mentioned that the company received $785 million in dividends from just one stock in 2021 (it was Apple).

Buffett's recent buys for Berkshire's portfolio also hints that dividends might have been on his mind. In the third quarter of 2022, he purchased eight stocks. Seven of them pay dividends. A few of them offer dividends that are quite attractive. Buffett just bought these three dividend stocks with yields of over 3%.

1. Paramount Global

Paramount Global (NASDAQ: PARA) stands out as Buffett's only high-yield purchase in the third quarter. The media company's dividend yield currently tops 5.1%. 

Buffett's history with Paramount goes back to when the company was known as Viacom. He led Berkshire to open a position in Viacom in 2012. While the legendary investor later sold all of those shares, he apparently regained an interest in the stock in the first quarter of this year and has kept on buying.

Berkshire now owns 15% of Paramount Global's outstanding class B shares. The stock hasn't been a winner for Buffett so far, though, with a year-to-date decline of close to 40%. 

What does the multibillionaire investor like about Paramount (other than its dividend)? Its valuation probably ranks high on the list. The stock trades below 12.8 times expected earnings.

2. Jefferies Financial Group

Buffett has long been a fan of bank stocks. But he's become less enamored of the financial services sector lately. That's what makes Berkshire's new position in Jefferies Financial Group (NYSE: JEF) somewhat surprising.

With a market cap of under $9 billion, Jefferies is much smaller than the other banks in Berkshire's portfolio. Unlike those other bigger corporations, Jefferies focuses only on investment banking and doesn't have a commercial banking unit. But it offers a dividend that rivals the big boys with a yield of more than 3.2%.

Jefferies' stock has also outgained Berkshire's other bank stocks so far this year. However, Buffett's investment in the company played a key role in that outperformance.

Berkshire owns only a tiny position in Jefferies, though. That could indicate that Buffett and his team began buying in the latter part of the third quarter and are continuing to scoop up shares in the fourth quarter.

3. Chevron

It wasn't surprising whatsoever that Buffett added to his position in Chevron (NYSE: CVX) in the third quarter. The oil and gas giant is Berkshire's third-largest holding, including shares owned by its New England Asset Management subsidiary. 

Chevron's dividend yield of 3.1% is lower than it's been throughout much of the past 10 years. That's not because the company has cut its dividend, though. Actually, Chevron is a Dividend Aristocrat with 35 consecutive years of dividend increases.

Instead, the company's dividend yield is lower because its stock price has risen so much. Chevron stock has soared nearly 60% year to date. That follows a 39% gain in 2021.

Buffett seems to still think Chevron is attractively valued. Its shares trade at 11.2 times expected earnings. There's a good chance that this stock -- and its dividend -- go even higher. 

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

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Warren Buffett has made many memorable statements throughout the years. One I've always especially liked is this line he wrote in his 1996 letter to Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) (NYSE: BRK.B) shareholders: "If you aren't willing to own a stock for 10 years, don't even think about owning it for 10 minutes."

That's exactly the kind of thing you'd expect to hear from a legendary investor known for his buy-and-hold long-term mindset. This is the same person who once stated that his "favorite holding period is forever". You'd also probably think Buffett has always practised what he's preached.

Think again. Buffett doesn't follow his own advice on this front nearly as often as you might expect. And it's actually made him richer.

The 10-year test

My curiosity recently got the better of me. I went back to Berkshire's 13F-HR filing for the third quarter of 2012. The purpose was simple: I wanted to see just how many of the stocks Buffett owned (via his stake in Berkshire) 10 years ago were still in his portfolio as of the latest regulatory filing.

In Q3 2012, Berkshire owned 37 stocks. Only 15 of those stocks were in the conglomerate's portfolio 10 years later. Of course, this didn't mean that Buffett hadn't owned the other 22 stocks for 10 years. After all, he could have bought them well before 2012 and still held them for at least that long. That was exactly the case with seven of them. 

There were also some other unusual scenarios to account for. One of those stocks from 2012 (Precision Castparts) was fully acquired by Berkshire along the way. On the other hand, Buffett sold Viacom during the period only to buy it back with the purchase of Paramount Global shares earlier this year. (Viacom later became ViacomCBS and renamed itself Paramount Global in February 2022.)

We also should cut Buffett some slack in a few cases. Three of the companies in which Berkshire owned shares back in 2012 were later acquired and taken private -- USG, Wabco, and The Washington Post. He couldn't still own these stocks today even if he wanted to.

Still, though, Buffett didn't hold on to 11 of the stocks in Berkshire's portfolio in Q3 2012 for at least 10 years. That's nearly 30% of the total number of stocks he owned back then. This got me to question whether his decisions to sell those stocks were smart moves.

A lazy analysis

I took an admittedly lazy approach in analyzing Buffett's wisdom in selling so many stocks before he had held them for 10 years. But I think my quick-and-dirty method is nonetheless instructive.

No, I didn't try to do the practically impossible task of guessing what Buffett did with the money made from those sales. I simply compared the performances of all the stocks in Berkshire's Q3 2012 portfolio that Buffett hadn't held for at least 10 years against how Berkshire itself performed between the end of Q3 2012 and the end of Q3 2022.

So what did I find? Only two of the 11 stocks that Buffett sold without holding for 10 years had delivered a total return greater than Berkshire's by the end of the third quarter of 2022 -- Deere and Verisk Analytics.

The bottom line here is that Buffett appears to have come out better overall by selling this group of stocks instead of holding them for 10 years. He's richer because he didn't dogmatically buy and hold.

RIP, buy and hold?

Don't say "rest in peace" to the buy-and-hold philosophy just yet, though. For one thing, Buffett did use some wiggle words in his previous statements. He didn't insist that investors should always hold stocks for at least 10 years. He merely said that you should be willing to own the stocks for that long.

The reality is that you can have a long-term mindset even when you don't hold some stocks for an especially long period. I don't think Buffett bought any of those stocks back then without being willing to own them for at least a decade. However, business dynamics can change. And it's possible for even the Oracle of Omaha to make mistakes.

Perhaps Buffett won't keep the stocks that he's recently added to Berkshire's portfolio for 10 years. If he doesn't, though, I think his advice to Berkshire shareholders in 1996 is still relevant. Be willing to buy and hold for the long term. Let your winners run. But if your premise for buying a stock changes, sell it. Buy and hold doesn't have to mean buy and hope.

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

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