Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has dumped half of its Apple holdings as it continues to trim its position in the company.
The investment company slashed its stake in the tech giant by over $50bn (£39bn) to $84.2bn (£65.7bn) in the second quarter, according to filings released over the weekend.
Berkshire sold around 390m Apple shares, generating post-tax profits of $47.2bn (£36.9bn), according to calculations by the Financial Times. It is on top of 115m Apple shares it sold from January to March.
The sell-off has boosted Berkshire’s cash reserves to a record $277bn (£216.3bn) up $88bn (£68.7bn) from the previous quarter. Much of this has been funnelled into short-term Treasuries.
It is part of a major $76bn (£59.3bn) stock sell-off for Berkshire. Since mid-July, the conglomerate has offloaded over $3.8bn (£3bn) worth of its Bank of America shares, it’s second-largest stock holding.
Investment mogul Buffett, often hailed as the Sage of Omaha for his investment foresight, started shrinking Berkshire’s position in Apple late last year and accelerated the share sales in early 2024.
Apple recently beat estimates on earnings and revenue, but continued to struggle in China, where sales fell by 6.5 per cent. Shares have risen 18.4 per cent year to date and nearly 21 per cent over the past year.
Although it has now announced its new Apple Intelligence platform, it has lagged other tech companies on artificial intelligence (AI) announcements and transparency, causing concern among some investors.
Apple has been a cornerstone of Berkshire’s portfolio in recent years although Buffett and his late partner Charlie Munger were initially hesitant to invest in tech companies and have previously expressed regret at missing out on blue chips like Google.
But their stance shifted in 2016 and Berkshire has invested around $40bn (£31.2bn) in Apple shares since then.
The American billionaire reassured shareholders in May that Apple remains a key long-term investment.
“Unless something dramatically happens that really changes capital allocation strategy, we will have Apple as our largest investment,” Buffett said at the company’s annual meeting.
“But I don’t mind at all, under current conditions, building the cash position . . . 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,” he added.