The latest information released by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shows that in the first three trading days of this week (September 30 to October 2), Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sold over 8.54 million shares of stocks. $Bank of America (BAC.US)$ The fill price ranged between $39.3994 and $39.6141 per share, with a total cash out of approximately $0.3379 billion (around 2.37 billion RMB).

Since July, Berkshire Hathaway has reduced its holdings of Bank of America stock by approximately $9.751 billion, equivalent to about 68.437 billion RMB. As of October 2, Berkshire Hathaway still held 0.794 billion shares of Bank of America.

The pace of selling has slowed down, approaching the regulatory threshold of holdings.

On October 2nd (Wednesday), according to the latest disclosures from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sold approximately 8.4 million shares of Bank of America common stock from September 30 to October 2, cashing out about $0.3379 billion. Since July, Berkshire Hathaway has cumulatively reduced its holdings of Bank of America stock by approximately $9.751 billion.

After this reduction, Berkshire Hathaway's stake in Bank of America's outstanding shares, controlled by Buffett, dropped to 10.2%. According to regulations, if the stake exceeds 10%, the transaction needs to be disclosed within 2 days; if it is not more than 10%, there is no need to disclose the transaction details immediately, and it may normally take weeks to disclose in quarterly reports.

In July, Berkshire Hathaway began to significantly reduce its holdings of Bank of America stocks. Throughout July, the company sold approximately $3.825 billion worth of Bank of America stocks.

In August, Berkshire Hathaway sold a total of approximately $2.38 billion worth of Bank of America stocks. From August 15 to 19, Berkshire Hathaway sold about $0.55 billion worth of Bank of America stocks. Then, from August 23 to 27, approximately $0.9819 billion of stocks were sold. From August 28 to 30, a further approximately 21 million shares of Bank of America stocks were sold, cashing out around $0.848 billion.

Entering September, Berkshire Hathaway's selling activities continued. From September 3 to 5, the company sold about $0.76 billion worth of Bank of America stocks. From September 6 to 10, the company sold about $0.229 billion in a smaller scale. From September 17 to 19, approximately $0.896 billion was sold. From September 20 to 24, about 21 million shares of Bank of America common stock were sold, cashing out around $0.863 billion. From September 25 to 27, a slight cash-out of $0.461 billion.

The latest documents released by the SEC on Wednesday show that Berkshire Hathaway further sold around 8.54 million shares of Bank of America common stock, cashing out approximately $0.338 billion. It is worth noting that Buffett's pace of selling Bank of America stocks has started to slow down in the last two sales, with each sale amounting significantly lower than the average of about $0.75 billion per round (typically lasting three days) over the past 3 months.

In summary, from July to early October, Berkshire Hathaway has total cashed out approximately $9.751 billion. It is reported that, excluding the impact of taxes, Buffett's total profit from selling Bank of America stocks since mid-July, along with dividends received since 2011, has exceeded the $14.6 billion spent on buying Bank of America shares.

After the latest sales, Berkshire Hathaway still holds 0.794 billion shares of Bank of America stocks. Based on the latest closing price, the remaining stake of Berkshire Hathaway in Bank of America is still valued at a high $31.1 billion, maintaining its position as the largest shareholder.

As for whether Buffett's consecutive selling behavior truly means liquidating Bank of America, it is still unknown. However, according to his habit, when he starts selling a stock, he eventually clears that position. In recent years, Berkshire Hathaway has liquidated stocks of multiple banks, including$U.S. Bancorp (USB.US)$Wells Fargo & Co.,$Bank of New York Mellon (BK.US)$.

Ash Shah, the investment director and senior investment portfolio manager at Summit Global Investments, said: "In short, Buffett seems to believe that the best investments currently are cash and bonds."

At the Barclays Global Financial Services Conference held on September 10th, Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, told the audience that he cannot directly call Buffett and ask him what he is doing, "because frankly, we can't ask, and we won't ask."

Planning to issue yen bonds again.

On October 1st local time, another document disclosed by Berkshire Hathaway revealed that the company plans to conduct its second yen bond issuance in the global market this year, sparking speculation that the company is seeking to increase investments in Japan.

The documents show that Berkshire has hired Bank of America Securities and SMBC Nikko Securities to handle this yen bond issuance. Berkshire has been a regular issuer of yen notes since 2019, with the last issuance of such bonds in April this year. At that time, Berkshire raised a total of 263.3 billion yen (approximately $1.71 billion) through the issuance of yen bonds, the second largest transaction in the company's history of issuing yen bonds, only behind the initial 430 billion yen bond issuance in 2019.

Warren Buffett's financing plans usually attract the attention of stock market investors. Earlier this year, after Buffett revealed the news of purchasing shares of Japan's five major trading companies, it once drove the index to reach a historic high.$Nikkei 225 (.N225.JP)$In his annual shareholder letter in February, Buffett stated that most of Berkshire's investments in Japan are achieved through financing in Japanese yen-denominated bonds. As of October 1st, Berkshire's outstanding Japanese yen-denominated bonds were approximately 1.41 trillion yen (about 9.8 billion US dollars).

According to some market analysis, Buffett may invest in Japanese financial and shipping companies this time. Yasuo Yamai, chief analyst of Daiwa Securities, believes that insurance companies and shipping companies may be Buffett's next targets. He pointed out that although trading companies' stock prices have risen slightly due to the news of bonds issuance, the increase is not significant. Meanwhile, shipping and insurance stocks have outperformed since August, which may align better with Buffett's value investment strategy.Technical AnalysisAccording to some market analysts, Buffett may invest in Japanese financial and shipping companies this time. Yasuo Yamai, chief analyst of Daiwa Securities, believes that insurance companies and shipping companies may be Buffett's next targets. He pointed out that although trading companies' stock prices have risen slightly due to the news of bonds issuance, the increase is not significant. Meanwhile, shipping and insurance stocks have outperformed since August, which may align better with Buffett's value investment strategy.$TOPIX (.TOPIX.JP)$According to some market analysts, Buffett may invest in Japanese financial and shipping companies this time. Yasuo Yamai, chief analyst of Daiwa Securities, believes that insurance companies and shipping companies may be Buffett's next targets. He pointed out that although trading companies' stock prices have risen slightly due to the news of bonds issuance, the increase is not significant. Meanwhile, shipping and insurance stocks have outperformed since August, which may align better with Buffett's value investment strategy.

The valuations of Japanese banks and insurance companies have decreased somewhat after a significant sell-off in the market in August. Compared to early July, the pe ratios of the Topix insurance and banking indices have decreased from 12.1 and 12.4 to 9 and 10.1 respectively. Nomura Securities' senior strategist Takashi Ito also mentioned that Buffett may purchase financial stocks because the fundamentals of the Japanese financial industry are strong, meeting Buffett's criteria.

However, some observers believe that Buffett's focus may still be on trading companies, especially in the context of Berkshire Hathaway recently selling shares of Bank of America. An analyst who has been following Buffett for a long time mentioned that while Buffett is selling Bank of America stocks, he is unlikely to buy Japanese bank stocks as he has a better understanding of the American market.

Editor/rice