Berkshire Hathaway’s cash reserves have reached $ 325.2 billion, as Warren Buffett has immediately pulled out of the transaction, which was one of the most profitable transactions in the past decade.
Oracle of Omaha and its conglomerate holding company Berkshire began selling Apple shares late last year, scaling back big bets on the technology company it founded in 2016.
Financial Times reported that Berkshire accelerated the sale pace earlier this year, reduced the apple stock by the end of the second quarter, and contributed to raising the money on hand to $ 277 billion at the time. .
But by the end of the third quarter, Berkshire Hathaway had sold another quarter of its stake in the tech company, or 100 million shares, bringing its total number of shares from 400 million to 300 million, compared to Broke cash records.
The company sold more than two -thirds of Apple shares in just over a year. The tech company remains the leader with $69.9 billion worth of stock, but at its peak Apple accounted for $178 billion worth of Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio.
The enthusiasm of Apple’s sale has occurred after Buffett has fully reduced its shares in the past two years. According to CNN reports, Berkshire purchased only $ 1.5 billion in the third quarter, selling stocks for the eighth quarter.
Berkshire’s cash and short-term debt of $325.2 billion currently exceeded its stock’s market value of $271.6 billion at the end of the third quarter, according to its latest earnings report. While some have questioned Berkshire’s huge stock sales, the company has performed well over the past three years, with its stock up 52%, outpacing the S&P 500’s 22% rise over the same period.
View this interactive chart on Fortune.com
Part of the reason for the large-scale stock sales is likely that capital gains tax rates will rise in the coming years to help pay for the federal deficit, which amounted to about 122% of gross domestic product (GDP) as of 2023. Buffett’s prediction is to. .
“The current fiscal policy is going to have some impact, and I think it’s very likely that we’ll see a tax increase,” Buffett said at Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting in May.
Vice President Camara Harris said that if elected by the president, the corporate tax rate would increase from 21 % to 28 %. Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump has vowed to reduce the corporate tax rate to 15% for companies that manufacture products in the United States.
Buffett said Berkshire Hathaway would keep Apple as its biggest investment, but added that he wanted to keep more cash on hand.
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