Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has been unloading a huge portion of its Apple holdings over the last nine months. The conglomerate’s cash on hand has skyrocketed as it sells off shares of one of the world’s most valuable companies.
Berkshire offloaded roughly 25% of its Apple stock in the third quarter, according to its latest earnings report released Saturday, Nov. 2. Buffett’s company sold roughly 600 million shares of Apple so far in 2024, including 100 million shares in the third quarter.
Apple was the world’s most valuable company until Nvidia recently dethroned the iPhone maker on the strength of its artificial intelligence offerings.
Berkshire’s cash on hand grew to $325.2 billion at the end of the third quarter, up from roughly $276.9 billion at the end of the second quarter.
Buffett addressed the sale of Apple stock during Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting in May 2024.
“We will have Apple as our largest investment,” he assured the crowd. “But I don’t mind at all, under current conditions, building the cash position. I think when I look at the alternative of what’s available in the equity markets, and I look at the composition of what’s going on in the world, we find it quite attractive.”
Apple is still Berkshire Hathaway’s largest position. It holds 300 million shares in the company valued at around $70 billion. Still, that number is down from the $174 billion worth of Apple stock it held at the end of last year. Buffett also sold $10 billion worth of Bank of America stock during the third quarter.
During May’s meeting, Buffett said he doesn’t see a lot of inexpensive, quality equity opportunities. And considering the state of the country’s finances, he has indicated he expects capital gains taxes to rise and is locking in profits before then.
But analysts see other possibilities for why Berkshire Hathaway dumped so much Apple stock.
“The share sales began surely after the death of Charlie Munger,” Edward Jones analyst Jim Shanahan said of Buffett’s longtime business partner who passed away last year. “It just may be the case that Munger was always a lot more comfortable with Apple than Warren Buffett.”
But CFRA analyst Cathy Seifert said it’s more likely the stake in Apple was “starting to become an outsized percentage” of Berkshire’s portfolio.
Profits from Berkshire’s business were down 6% compared to last year, coming in at $10.1 billion, just missing expectations. Its stock hit all-time highs in September, briefly eclipsing a $1 trillion valuation.
