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Buffett invests $3.7B in Exxon

Warren Buffett is going contrarian again.

That is, if investing in Exxon Mobil — with its $407 billion market cap — can ever be considered against-the-grain thinking.

The Oracle of Omaha’s Berkshire Hathaway revealed Thursday it purchased $3.7 billion worth of shares in the oil and gas giant between July 1 and Sept. 30.

Buffett has not invested so much in a new holding since 2011, when he revealed a much larger position in IBM.

To place it in perspective, Buffett’s Exxon investment represents about 4 percent of his $92 billion stock portfolio.

“Warren loves buying stocks that have been under-loved,” Raymond James Analyst Pavel Molchanov told The Post.

“Exxon is under-loved in the bull market.”

Exxon’s shares are up 7.7 percent this year compared to a 25.6 percent rise in the S&P 500. They closed Thursday up 0.7 percent, to $93.22, but gained nearly 1 percent after hours when the Berkshire regulatory filing revealing the Exxon stake was made.

“It has turned almost into a contrarian stock,” Molchanov said.

Buffett’s biggest new holding last quarter was also an oil producer, Suncor Energy — albeit a much smaller investment at $500 million.

Molchanov said Buffett is a classic value investor and the Exxon move is likely more about the company than the oil and gas sector.

In fact, Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway also revealed Thursday it had reduced its position in fast growing ConocoPhillips from 24.2 million, to 13.5 million, shares. Conoco’s shares rose at the same pace as the S&P in 2013.