Warren Buffett Investing Heavily in ConocoPhillips

Regulatory filings show that Warren Buffett has been buying up shares of ConocoPhillips (COP) since the end of March. At that time Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) owned 17.5 million shares, while now they've acquired over 83 million shares.

That move by Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway make it the largest shareholder in Conoco at this time.

Other major investment managers have been making large share acquisitions of Conoco as well, including Chris Davis and Ken Feinberg's Davis New York Venture (NYVTX) fund. They believe investment in commodities will be a big part of increasing returns in the years ahead, even though they are temporarily out of favor.

"As developing nations add to worldwide incremental demand for commodities like oil and natural resources, we believe the long-term average price ranges for such resources could climb, notwithstanding the recent pullback in certain commodity prices. Consistent with our energy and natural resource-related investments to date, we will remain on the lookout for disciplined capital allocators who can generate attractive profits for shareholders given a stable price environment and windfall profits under more bullish scenarios."

For a good look at what differentiates ConocoPhillips from its competitors, Morningstar analyst Allen Good gives an indepth analysis of the company.