Financial Association News on October 18 (Editor: Huang Junzhi) In the first half of this year, the 'Stock God' Buffett has been aggressively selling Apple's stocks. The 'Oracle of Omaha' conducted the largest stock sell-off in history in the second quarter, reducing his holdings of Apple stocks by about half (55%), but since then, the stock price of the iPhone maker has risen by 10%.

According to calculations, after Buffett's 'selling spree', the Berkshire Hathaway company suffered a loss of about $23 billion.

Data shows that at the beginning of 2024, Berkshire Hathaway still held 0.9056 billion shares of Apple stock, worth about $174 billion. Based on the current price, the value of these shares is about $210 billion. However, after the frenzy of selling, by the end of the second quarter of this year, Berkshire Hathaway only held $84 billion worth of Apple stocks.

In the first quarter, Berkshire Hathaway reduced its holdings of Apple stocks by 13%, selling approximately 0.1162 billion shares. Then in the second quarter, the company sold 0.3897 billion shares of stocks.

However, since the third quarter, the stock price of this iPhone manufacturer has risen by about 10% as investors become increasingly excited about the company's 'Apple asia vets' (Apple Intelligence) technology, driving growth in its hardware sales. At the close of the US stock market on Thursday, Apple's stock price rose by 0.16% to $232.15. Year-to-date, the stock has increased by 25.05%.

Due to the unavailability of the exact price at which Buffett sold Apple stocks, the above calculations use the average stock price in the first and second quarters as the selling price. The calculation shows that Berkshire sold 0.5059 billion shares of Apple stock at an average weighted price of $186.15 per share in the first half of 2024.

Calculations show that Warren Buffett's approximate loss from selling Apple stocks is about $23.2 billion.

As for the reasons for selling, Buffett has never specifically explained. He only previously indicated that part of the reason for selling Apple and Bank of America stocks was his belief that the current tax laws will expire at the end of next year, leading to an increase in corporate tax rates.

At the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting in May, Buffett said, "If I trade at 21% this year (the current federal corporate tax rate) and at a higher rate in the future, I don't think you would be too concerned that we sold some Apple stocks this year."

Some investors also believe that Buffett's actions were due to Apple's equity accounting for over 40% in Berkshire's equity investment portfolio, becoming an oversized position.

It is worth mentioning that not only Apple stocks, Buffett has been reducing stock positions and choosing to hold cash off the market. By mid-August, Buffett's cash reserve reached a record $189 billion, and he has since been profitably liquidating stocks.

According to statistics, in the past seven quarters, Buffett's stock sales have exceeded his purchases every quarter.

In addition to Apple, he has been heavily selling Bank of America stocks for several months and has reduced Berkshire's ownership percentage in Bank of America to below 10%, with accumulated cash gains exceeding $10 billion.