Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway sells nearly half of Apple stake

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway nearly half of its huge apple Last quarter, the investor known for his long-term focus made a surprising move.

The Omaha-based conglomerate disclosed in its earnings report that its stake in the iPhone maker was worth $84.2 billion at the end of the second quarter, indicating that Oracle of Omaha sold just over 49% technology shares. Even after the sale, Apple remains Berkshire’s largest stock by far.

The Apple stock sale comes amid Buffett’s broader sell-off pattern in the second quarter, which saw Berkshire sell off more than $75 billion in shares, bringing the conglomerate’s cash fortress to a record $277 billion.

Buffett cut his Apple stake by 13% in the first quarter, hinting at Berkshire’s annual meeting in May that it was for tax reasons. Buffett pointed out that if the U.S. government wants to curb the rising fiscal deficit and raise capital gains taxes, selling “a little Apple” this year will benefit Berkshire shareholders in the long run.

But the scale of the sell-off suggests it may be more than just a tax-saving move.

After falling in the first quarter on concerns that it was lagging behind in artificial intelligence innovation, Apple shares started to rise in the second quarter, rising 23% to set a new record, as it provided investors with more details about its artificial intelligence future.

It’s unclear why Buffett is selling off shares of Berkshire Hathaway, which he first purchased more than eight years ago, whether it was for corporate reasons, market valuation or portfolio management issues (Buffett generally doesn’t want a single holding to grow too big). Berkshire Hathaway’s Apple holdings were once so large that they accounted for half of her stock portfolio.

The 93-year-old investor had largely avoided technology companies for most of his career before joining Apple. Berkshire began buying the stock in 2016 under the influence of Buffett’s investing lieutenants Ted Weschler and Todd Combs. Buffett has grown so fond of Apple over the years that he has significantly increased his stake in it, making it Berkshire’s largest company and calling the tech giant the second most important after his insurance company cluster. business.

Buffett has been selling off his top stocks like crazy lately. Buffett recently began shrinking his second-largest holding – Bank of AmericaAfter 12 days of frenzied selling, $3.8 billion worth of bank stocks were sold off.

Overall, the quarterly report showed that Buffett sold stocks last quarter and the S&P 500 rose to a record high in anticipation of a “soft landing” for the U.S. economy. This week, that soft landing was called into question after Friday’s weaker-than-expected July jobs report.