① Previously disclosed in the Q2 report, Berkshire has already revealed information about significantly reducing stock holdings; ② American cloud computing company Snowflake and media group Paramount Universal were exited by Berkshire; ③ Occidental Petroleum and the previously mysterious holding Chubb Ltd continued to receive shareholding, while Ulta Beauty and aerospace electronics company HEICO received new holdings.
On Thursday morning Beijing time, around 4am, the mystery of 'Buffett reducing US stocks' was finally solved - Berkshire Hathaway released its US stock holding report (Form 13F) for the 2nd quarter after-hours on the last day of the statutory reporting period.
In the Q2 report on August 3, Berkshire Hathaway disclosed that it had 'halved its position in Apple', drawing global market attention. In that financial report, Berkshire Hathaway revealed that the company had reduced its stock holdings by about $75 billion while its cash level has increased to a stunning $276.9 billion. Among them, short-term US bond holdings, which had an annualized yield rate of about 5%, increased to $234.6 billion, more than the Federal Reserve.
(Berkshire 2Q report, source: company's official website)
Since then, the market has been waiting for this Form 13F to see what Buffett has done.
The released document showed that Berkshire Hathaway's US stock holding value was $279.969 billion at the end of the second quarter, a decrease of $52.1 billion from the end of the first quarter ($332 billion).
(Source: SEC documents)
As the most noteworthy point for the market, Berkshire Hathaway reduced its holdings of 10 securities in total during Q2 this year, with the firmest being Apple, which was cut directly from 0.789 billion shares to 0.4 billion shares. In addition, American cloud computing company Snowflake and media group Paramount Universal were the only two stocks to be exited by Berkshire Hathaway during the reporting period.
(Top 5 stocks with reduced holdings by Berkshire in Q2, source: whalewisdom, Berkshire, Caixin)
In addition, First Capital Financial Corp., hard surface flooring and related accessory retailer Floor & Decor, oil and gas giant Chevron, and telecommunications giant T-Mobile were also reduced by Buffett to different extents.
Finally, despite not being shown in the Form 13F, according to regulatory filings over the past few weeks, Berkshire Hathaway also began selling Bank of America, its second-largest holding, in the third quarter, reducing it by more than 90 million shares in the past month.
In terms of shareholding, Buffett continued to raise his stake in Occidental Petroleum during Q2, as well as the mysteriously held Chubb Ltd, which was first disclosed last quarter. The arbitrage trading firm Sirius XM was also increased again.
(Top 5 stocks with increased holdings by Berkshire in Q2, source: whalewisdom, Berkshire, Caixin)
During the reporting period, Berkshire Hathaway established positions in two new companies, Ulta Beauty, the largest beauty retailer in the United States, and aerospace and electronics company HEICO.
Despite a fierce sell-off, Berkshire Hathaway's main holding ranking did not change, with Apple, Bank of America, American Express, Coca-Cola, and Chevron continuing to occupy the top five holdings.
Attachment: Berkshire Hathaway's Q2-end holdings.
(Note: Berkshire has disclosed the sale of 90.42 million Bank of America shares in Q3)