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Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway resumed selling shares of Apple in the second quarter, offloading a stake worth more than $4bn as the billionaire investor continued to cut one of his most profitable trades.
Berkshire disclosed it sold 20mn shares between April and June, cutting its stake to 280mn shares, a position worth $57.4bn. They are the first sales by the conglomerate since the third quarter of 2024, after a selling-spree saw Buffett cut its stake in Apple by more than two-thirds.
The 2023-24 sales allowed the so-called Oracle of Omaha to lock in massive profits on an investment that Berkshire first made in 2016. It invested proceeds from the stock sales largely in short-term US Treasuries, pushing its cash pile to record levels.
Apple remains the largest position within Berkshire’s $268bn stock portfolio, accounting for roughly a fifth of the value.
Berkshire investors have attributed the past sales to Apple’s valuation, which had surged from the time Buffett invested.
“The relatively high valuation is the driving force for Berkshire’s recent sales,” said Darren Pollack, at Berkshire shareholder Cheviot. “The company isn’t growing at a rate that justifies such elevated valuations.”
Berkshire resumed selling in a volatile period for Apple, with the stock at one point down more than 30 per cent from the end of 2024. The company, which manufactures the vast majority of its products outside of the US, has been caught up in US President Donald Trump’s trade war.
Pollack added that Buffett had some “bad luck in the timing of his Apple sale”. The shares have rallied 12 per cent this month after chief executive Tim Cook pledged to invest in the US, easing tariff concerns.
The disposal of Apple stock accounted for the majority of Berkshire’s equity sales in the period, worth about $6.9bn. It also sold shares of Bank of America and exited its position in wireless carrier T-Mobile.
The sales in the second quarter contributed to a $4.2bn investment gain for Berkshire.
Berkshire said it spent $3.9bn buying equities in the period, as it added to its positions in oil major Chevron, Domino’s Pizza and Constellation Brands, which brews the Mexican beers Modelo and Corona for sale in the US.
The stocks it had purchased in the first quarter but had not previously disclosed were also divulged. Berkshire said it had bought shares in US homebuilders Lennar and DR Horton, as well as steelmaker Nucor. It continued to add to its position in Lennar and Nucor in the second quarter.
Berkshire also invested in US health insurer UnitedHealth in the quarter, a stake worth $1.6bn at the end of June. Disclosure of the investment comes after UnitedHealth shocked investors in May by withdrawing its earnings guidance. Its former chief executive Andrew Witty stepped down in May amid the struggles.
UnitedHealth is the seventh-worst performing company in the S&P 500 company this year. It is facing several government investigations, including a criminal probe of its Medicare billing programme.
UnitedHealth shares rose 10 per cent in after-hours trading following Berkshire’s disclosure.
Additional reporting by Patrick Temple-West
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