Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway said on Monday it trimmed or eliminated its stakes in several pharmaceutical companies, exiting a $180 million stake in Biogen and reduced investments in Abbvie, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Merck. The firm’s largest holding, by far, is Apple.
The changes were disclosed in a regulatory filing detailing Berkshire’s U.S.-listed holdings as of June 30.
Berkshire has instead bought back about $14.3 billion of its own stock between January and late July though its share price also set records, and now sits just 2% below its May 7 peak.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate ended June with $144.1 billion of cash and equivalents. Berkshire also owns dozens of businesses including the BNSF railroad, Geico auto insurance and Dairy Queen ice cream.
Its largest investments on that [June 30] date were $124.3 billion in Apple Inc and $42.6 billion in Bank of America Corp.
MacDailyNews Take: Based on yesterday’s Apple closing price, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway holds 822.525 million shares on Apple which pays a dividend of $0.22 per share. So, every quarter, at current holdings, Berkshire Hathaway makes a cool $180.955 million in Apple dividends (pre-tax). Dividends alone are just another reason why Warren Buffett loves Apple!
Yet Buffett prefers share buybacks over dividends.
Wow, I didn’t know that!
I love Warren Buffet’s story!