Warren Buffett may have again cut Berkshire’s stake in Apple in Q3

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway may have quietly trimmed its massive Apple stake again in the third quarter, a new regulatory filing suggests.

In its latest quarterly report, Berkshire said the cost basis of its consumer products equity holdings fell by roughly $1.2 billion from the prior quarter. That category is dominated by the giant conglomerate’s Apple position, implying the decline likely reflects additional sales of Apple shares.

Apple’s stock jumped more than 24% in the third quarter, a rally that would have offered Buffett an attractive opportunity to take profits.

Buffett went on a head-turning selling spree in Apple in 2024, slashing two-thirds of the shares Berkshire held in a surprising move for the famously long-term-focused investor. Berkshire also trimmed its Apple stake in the second quarter of this year. The iPhone maker was still Berkshire’s largest holding at the end of June, when it controlled 280 million shares worth $57 billion.

Investors will get more clarity about the exact size of Berkshire’s Apple position when it releases its detailed 13F filing it makes to the Securities and Exchange Commission later this month. That will disclose any changes to individual stock holdings through September 30.

Buffett had previously hinted that selling down the Apple stake was for tax reasons, but others speculated that the size of the sales suggested the so-called Oracle of Omaha was also concerned about Apple’s high valuation. Some thought it was also part of portfolio management, as the Apple stake had grown so big that at one time it accounted for more than half of Berkshire’s investment portfolio.

Berkshire has been a net seller of stocks for 12 straight quarters, raising over $6 billion in cash in the third quarter. Buffett’s one-time favorite yardstick for stock market valuations, which measures the total value of all publicly-traded U.S. stocks against the entire gross national product of the United States, has climbed to an all-time high, reaching a level that he once described as “playing with fire.”