Warren Buffett’s investment firm, Berkshire Hathaway, substantially reduced its stake in Apple during the first half of 2024. According to regulatory filings, Berkshire has cut its Apple holdings by 55%. This move could have potentially cost the company a significant amount of money, as Apple’s stock price has risen by 10% since the end of the second quarter.
If Berkshire had maintained its previous position in Apple, its stake would be valued at approximately $210 billion at current market prices. This suggests that the company may have missed out on a $23 billion profit opportunity by trimming its Apple holdings.
Matthew Fox for Business Insider:
Calculations by Business Insider suggest Berkshire Hathaway’s sales of Apple stock in the first and second quarters of this year resulted in about $23 billion in missed profits for Warren Buffett’s conglomerate.
Berkshire Hathaway entered 2024 with a massive stake in Apple, holding 905.6 million shares worth about $174 billion at the time.
At current prices, that stake would have been worth about $210 billion. Instead, Berkshire Hathaway’s current stake in Apple was worth $84 billion at the end of the second quarter.
The difference between the weighted average price and the price of Apple stock on Thursday nets out the $23.1 billion in missed profits for Berkshire Hathaway.
MacDailyNews Take: $23 billion is quite the “oops!” And, that’s not even counting lost dividends! But, hey, nobody’s perfect. Own it, don’t trade it, Warren!
Please help support MacDailyNews — and enjoy subscriber-only articles, comments, chat, and more — by subscribing to our Substack: macdailynews.substack.com. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
I agree 100% about losing out on $23B is a big oops. If I recall correctly, it was Buffet who said when asked “what is your secret?”, his reply was [paraphrasing], I am always accused of selling too soon.” He did note that while he did miss out on some healthy returns, he claimed he rarely took big losses using this technique. who knows?
Someone probably convinced him that Apple missed the AI boat. It’s still an open question but I think they’re probably not that far behind the big players and their strategy of focusing on AI within the Apple ecosystem will play out albeit on a longer timescale than we’d like. When he sold the common consensus was that Apple had dropped the ball, it’s not until recently that we’ve come to realize that it didn’t matter that much and they can play catch-up without a real penalty.
hes so rich it does not even matter. he said he buys the cheapest stuff he can at McDonalds to save money for breakfast and also recommends buying generic products to save money.