Berkshire sells more Apple shares, gains US$97b from stock sales
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The news: Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway continued its stock-selling spree, unloading approximately 100 million Apple shares in the third quarter, according to a regulatory filing.
The context: Buffett has progressively divested from Apple in the past year, cutting the stake by almost two-thirds since its peak in 2023.
The numbers: The share sale during the quarter cut its Apple holding by 25% to USD69.9 billion ($105.2 billion) as of the end the September.
Over the same period, Berkshire sold USD36.1 billion in stocks, including USD3 billion in Bank of America shares. This was the eighth consecutive quarter Berkshire has been a net seller of equities.
No stock buybacks occurred, and cash reserves soared to a new record high of USD325.2 billion, according to the conglomerate quarterly report.
Quarterly operating profits fell by 6% to USD10.1 billion, largely due to higher insurance underwriting liabilities including rom hurricane Helene and currency losses from a stronger dollar.
Net income, however, surged to USD26.3 billion buoyed by investment gains.
Berkshire on Saturday showed it realised USD97 billion in gains from selling USD133 billion worth of stocks in the first nine months of the year.
What they said: “It’s still the greatest trade of all time by the greatest investor of all time,” Christopher Rossbach, CIOF of longtime Berkshire shareholder J Stern & Co told The Financial Times.
“The investment in Apple has defined his last decade and the fact that he is selling Apple now for valuation reasons is testament to his sticking to his principles at a scale that no one has before.”
