Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said on Friday it had modestly raised its stakes in Wells Fargo and U.S. Bancorp, two banks whose market values have fallen dramatically.

Buffett, who had hinted at Berkshire’s annual meeting earlier in the month that he would like to add to his positions in the two banks at their current prices, raised his stake in Wells by 12.4 million shares as of March 31, for a total of about 6.5 percent of its outstanding shares. Berkshire was already Wells’ biggest shareholder.

Berkshire raised its U.S. Bancorp stake by 1.5 million shares, reversing some sales in the prior quarter and giving Berkshire a total of about 3.7 percent of U.S. Bancorp.

Both banks’ shares fell to decade lows in the first quarter.

Buffett is famous for taking long-term bets on companies he thinks will produce superior results over time.

"He has a timeframe that transcends near-term swings," said Thomas Russo, a partner at Gardner Russo & Gardner, adding that Buffett was holding tight to many investments that might be battered a bit by recent currency fluctuations. Berkshire is the Lancaster, Pa., firm’s largest holding.

Berkshire disclosed a lower stake in oil company ConocoPhillips, something investors had expected after Berkshire took $1.9 billion in write-downs from this investment in the first quarter.

Buffett said earlier this month that ownership of Conoco had fallen further since the end of March. He has referred to Berkshire’s investment in Conoco, about $7 billion, as a major mistake.

The company also cut its holdings of Constellation Energy and UnitedHealth Group.

Berkshire, one of America’s most revered companies, has been hurt in recent quarters by the falling value of its stock investments, as well as long-term derivatives contracts tied to stock market indexes and the credit quality of junk bonds. It disclosed its first quarterly loss since 2001 in the first quarter. (Reuters)