Berkshire Hathaway may have continued its streak of selling off Apple stock

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
Posted:
in AAPL Investors

Well ahead of Thursday's earnings, the "Oracle of Omaha's" Berkshire Hathaway may have sold a very large quantity of Apple stock, marking the third consecutive quarter of big sales volumes.

Warren Buffett [Berkshire Hathaway]
Warren Buffett [Berkshire Hathaway]



Apple stock has had an interesting quarter. On April 1, the stock was about $170 per share. It hit a peak of $234.82 in the middle of July.

And, Berkshire Hathaway may have take the opportunity to seize some profit, according to the head of investment firm that has had a stake in Warren Buffett's fund for a long time.

Berkshire Hathaway will release its second quarter 10-Q Saturday morning. I fully expect to see a further MATERIAL reduction in its Apple investment. At 33x 2024 earnings, essentially no revenue growth over the last two years, perhaps 6-7% prospective long-term growth, little pic.twitter.com/FoNywKNdnF

— Christopher Bloomstran (@ChrisBloomstran)



If accurate, the big sales of Apple stock would be the third consecutive big sale in three quarters. Berkshire Hathaway unloaded about 12.5% of its Apple holdings in the first quarter of 2024.

As of March 31, Berkshire Hathaway held about 789 million shares of Apple. This is about 5% of the company, and is worth about $177 billion.

Regardless, unless it is a truly massive sale, Apple will still likely be the largest holding value-wise, with Barron's claiming it sits at about 40% of a $400 billion portfolio before any sales are realized.

Berkshire Hathaway's second-quarter earnings will be announced on August 3. The required 10-Q form filed with the feds will spell all this out.

To be included in the earnings report, the sale would have to have been made before Thursday's earnings. Apple exceeded Wall Street's expectations, and after a brief gain in the stock price, it bled off those gains overnight with it likely to open Friday at about $218, under pressure from a larger sell-off of tech.

Buffett has cut Apple shares before. Although, in 2021 he said a recent round of selling shares had been "probably a mistake."



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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    PemaPema Posts: 98member
    The Oracle of Omaha is becoming the Laughing Stock of Omaha.  :D :D

    This idiot probably sold a chunk of Apple shares to fund his purchase of Intel, Yahoo and Humane AI. 

    Oftentimes old people leave well past their prime and devolve into stupid old age. 

    Buffett is a prime example of that. 


  • Reply 2 of 8
    nubusnubus Posts: 557member
    Pema said:
    The Oracle of Omaha is becoming the Laughing Stock of Omaha.  :D :D
    Look at the numbers. iPad is selling below 2021 and 2022 even after major upgrades this year, iPhone is below 2023, and Mac can't match the numbers from 2022 due to a lack of updates and products simply being good enough. Device revenue is flatlining or declining. Adjust for inflation and numbers are bad. The stock isn't priced for declining sales, and there is no Car in the pipeline to boost sales and services in a way that would matter to a company this big.

    The only (but important) upside is App Store. Antitrust agencies across the world are working on that and they will succeed outside the US. The stock is expensive for a company without growth.
  • Reply 3 of 8
    ddawson100ddawson100 Posts: 531member
    Pema said:
    The Oracle of Omaha is becoming the Laughing Stock of Omaha.  :D :D
    Said not a single person except for Pema. Compounding annually at a level well beyond the S&P 500 for 60 years. Even his detractors respect his approach. He hasn't indicated why he's selling so everything is just reading the tea leaves and quick judgement.
    nubusbaconstanggrandact73
  • Reply 4 of 8
    mikethemartianmikethemartian Posts: 1,457member
    Pema said:
    The Oracle of Omaha is becoming the Laughing Stock of Omaha.  :D :D

    This idiot probably sold a chunk of Apple shares to fund his purchase of Intel, Yahoo and Humane AI. 

    Oftentimes old people leave well past their prime and devolve into stupid old age. 

    Buffett is a prime example of that. 


    I’m willing to bet that he has better access to information than you.
    dewmeradarthekatbaconstanggrandact73
  • Reply 5 of 8
    jdwjdw Posts: 1,405member
    Pema said:
    This idiot probably... 
    “By the way, what have you done that’s so great? Do you create anything, or just criticize others’ work and belittle their motivations?”
    —Steve Jobs
    gatorguyradarthekat
  • Reply 6 of 8
    mknelsonmknelson Posts: 1,137member
    ddawson100 said:
    Pema said:
    The Oracle of Omaha is becoming the Laughing Stock of Omaha.  :D :D
    Said not a single person except for Pema. Compounding annually at a level well beyond the S&P 500 for 60 years. Even his detractors respect his approach. He hasn't indicated why he's selling so everything is just reading the tea leaves and quick judgement.
    Sell when other people are buying, buy when other people are selling. is a big part of his method.

    He's held the stock for a long time - might just be a good time to sell some, take the profit, and invest in something with more immediate growth potential, or bonds depending on how they expect interest rates to move.
    baconstang
  • Reply 7 of 8
    PemaPema Posts: 98member
    mikethemartian said:
    Pema said:
    The Oracle of Omaha is becoming the Laughing Stock of Omaha.  :D :D

    This idiot probably sold a chunk of Apple shares to fund his purchase of Intel, Yahoo and Humane AI. 

    Oftentimes old people leave well past their prime and devolve into stupid old age. 

    Buffett is a prime example of that. 


    I’m willing to bet that he has better access to information than you.

    Probably. I don't have access to any deep level analysis. That is not my schtick. But it is not about having access to good info it is about how you analyse it and make decisions. His mate, Hunger, Munger, whatever died some little while back so he doesn't have that person to bounce ideas off. So what does this fool of Omaha do invests in pollution and more polluting stuff like buying up Exxon. I mean how environmentally deaf do you have to be? 
    But he probably doesn't care. He figures his days are numbered and if the money he invests creates more pollution what of it? 
    Apple is a great company. Has a deep level understanding of its environment and continually makes decisions with that in mind. 
    I will give you just one little example the creation of the iPod relieved the planet of some one billion DVDs, CDs, Cassettes and Vinyl - ANNUALLY. People want music they download. And the follow on from that, Videos have become streamed and downloadable as well. 
    Apple is single handedly behind that trend.
    So what does the idiot of Omaha do, profit takes after praising Tim Cook and his management team, and buys oil. Dumb, dumb, dumb. And sad that that moron only looks at the dollars he can reap and not the destruction and damage that it causes. Sad - Very Sad. 

  • Reply 8 of 8
    baconstangbaconstang Posts: 1,141member
    I'm sure he had his reasons.
    In fact, I'd like to know what he spent the proceeds on...
    grandact73
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