Berkshire Hathaway sold $800 million in Apple stock over the last quarter, according to SEC filings published on Friday. Depending on when Warren Buffett's real estate company sold the 3.7 million Apple stock, it will have earned between $806 million and nearly $1.1 billion.
According to Business Insider, what might look like a massive sale is actually only a small portion of Buffett's investment in the tech company. Berkshire is Apple's biggest shareholder with a 5.4 percent stake worth $72 billion, according to Bloomberg data.
It's unclear what prompted the sale, but the company may have wanted to diversify its holdings, given some of its other investments in the last quarter, such as Kroger and Biogen. Apple accounts for 30 percent of Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio. Another possible reason for the sell-off is to cash out after Apple's stock surged by a third last quarter, from around $219 to $294.
Historically, Buffett has shied away from investing in technology companies, but the business magnate has suggested he sees Apple more as a consumer company and has been a long-term investor in the iPhone maker.
Last month, Apple reported quarterly revenue of $91.8 billion and net quarterly profit of $22.2 billion, or $4.99 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $84.3 billion and net quarterly profit of $20.0 billion, or $4.18 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. The quarter was the best in Apple's history, topping the first fiscal quarter of 2018.
Top Rated Comments
We do know how much he kept and the answer is, almost all of his 250M shares. This was a tiny, tiny portion of his holding that could have been sold for many reasons. What is his opinion on AAPL if he kept 99% of his shares?
It was 7:1 and stock splits do nothing for value.
Carl Icahn sold his AAPL shares around $90 and was completely foolish to do so.
Interesting though that he piled in just before (I think) a huge amount of Apple buyback occurred. Just sayin...