Warren Buffett’s Berkshire cuts Apple stake by half, boosts cash stockpile

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is selling about half of its stake in Apple and increasing its cash stockpile to almost $277 billion, according to figures released Saturday.

Berkshire’s quarterly report suggests that the 93-year-old Buffett, one of the world’s most revered investors, is growing wary that stock market valuations have gotten too high, or that the broader U.S. economy may be in a precarious position.

A stock market selloff on Friday followed a weaker-than-expected jobs report on Thursday, which sparked concerns the economy is heading for a recession and that the Federal Reserve may have waited too long to cut interest rates in its bid to achieve a “soft landing” to this inflationary cycle.

“If you look at the entire Berkshire picture and the macroeconomic data, a safe conclusion is that Berkshire is getting defensive,” said Cathy Seifert, an analyst at CFRA Research who rates Berkshire a “buy.”

WHY CHUBB CAUGHT WARREN BUFFETT’S EYE

Dan Ives, managing director for equity research at Wedbush Securities, cautioned that Apple remains Berkshire’s largest holding by far and that the firm paring back its stake in the tech giant isn’t necessarily a precursor to bad economic news.

“We note that today Berkshire still has Apple as its #1 position and is more than double its next biggest position, Bank of America, at roughly $41 billion,” he wrote. “While the bears will clearly run with this news and narrative coming off a brutal Friday selloff in tech stock, we strongly caution that Buffett is a core believer in Apple and we do not view this as a smoke signal for bad news ahead.”

WARREN BUFFETT PREDICTS HIGHER TAXES DUE TO RISING DEFICIT

Berkshire’s cash position grew to $276.9 billion as of June 30 from a then-record $189 billion three months earlier, largely because Berkshire sold a net $75.5 billion of stocks. It sold about 390 million Apple shares in the second quarter, on top of 115 million sold from January to March, as the iPhone maker’s stock price rose 23%. Berkshire still owned about 400 million shares worth $84.2 billion as of June 30.

At Berkshire’s annual meeting in May, Buffett explained that despite the company cutting its stake in Apple, he still expects it to be its largest holding at the end of this year.

“We have sold shares and I would say that at the end of the year I would think it extremely likely that Apple is the largest common stock holding we have,” Buffett said.

BUFFETT EXPLAINS BERKSHIRE’S REDUCED STAKE IN APPLE AT ANNUAL COMPANY MEETING