Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N) announced on Wednesday that it has trimmed its large stake in Apple (AAPL.O)and has shed its four other main stock investments, keeping investors guessing on what will be Warren Buffet’s next moves.
In a regulatory filing on Wednesday, reporting its US listed investments by the end of 2023, Berkshire Hathaway reported that it had sold 10 million Apple shares in the last quarter of 2023. However, even after selling such a large stake, Berkshire still holds almost 905 million shares of Apple worth more than $174 billion.
Although Warren Buffet directly handles the investments in Apple, the recent stock sales can also be attributed to its portfolio managers Ted Weshler and Todd Combs, who are responsible for overseeing some of Berkshire’s investments.
Berkshire reported that it has no holdings in DR Horton (DHI.N), Credit card processor StoneCo. (STNE.O), and the insurance companies Merkel (MKL.N) and Insurer Globe Life (GL.N), after holding more than $1 billion worth of stocks in these companies till September.
Meanwhile Berkshire reported that it has increased its stake in Chevron (CVX.N), one of its big stock holdings, and trimmed its stake in Paramount Global (PARA.O)and HP computers (HPQ.N).
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Keeping it confidential
In Spite of Berkshire announcing that it had trimmed its stake in Apple, it had obtained permission from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a second straight quarter to keep one or more of its holdings confidential on a temporary basis.
Nonetheless, it’s not a new phenomenon as Berkshire occasionally requests such treatment while making big investments as in the case of IBM (IBM.N), Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), Verizon Communications (VZ.N) or Chevron.
The reason is that investors try to follow what Berkshire does, due to Warren Buffet’s reputation as one of the most successful investors of all time. Hence, Berkshire tries to avoid any such situation where investors start piling up before it is done buying.
In its third quarter report, Berkshire Hathaway hinted that its upcoming confidential investments may include a bank, an insurer or a finance company as it had spent $1.2 billion in that sector, though it still has to reveal where the money got invested.
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Berkshire Hathaway
Nebraska based conglomerate, the Berkshire Hathaway was founded in 1839, and has been under the steward leadership of the most accomplished investors of all time, Warren Buffet, since 1970.
The conglomerate owns dozens of businesses including Geico car insurer, energy and industrial companies, BNSF railroad, and numerous consumer brands like Dairy Queen and Benjamin Moore.
It also owns Pilot truck stop chain, after acquiring a 20% stake in January from the Haslam family. Though it had reported its investments in regulatory filing on Wednesday, the detailed report will be released on February 24.
