Berkshire May Have Sold Apple, Bank of America Stock in Third Quarter

Berkshire Hathaway will soon disclose its equity holdings as of Sept. 30. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Key Points

• Berkshire Hathaway sold $12 billion in stocks during the third quarter, continuing a multi-year trend of net sales.
• Apple and Bank of America are potential sale candidates, with estimated sales of 35 million and 50 to 100 million shares, respectively.
• Berkshire also purchased $6.4 billion in stocks, with most new holdings in the commercial and industrial category.

Berkshire Hathaway sold $12 billion of stocks in the third quarter, and Apple and Bank of America lead the list of potential sale candidates.

Berkshire likely will release its quarterly 13-F report late Friday detailing its equity holdings of U.S.-listed securities as of Sept. 30. Friday is the deadline for 13-F filings, and Berkshire typically waits until the final day to file.

In addition to the Berkshire equity sales, investors will be interested to see if Berkshire added to some of its newer equity holdings in the third quarter, including UnitedHealth Group , Lennar and Nucor. Berkshire bought five million shares of UnitedHealth now worth about $1.7 billion in the second quarter. The disclosure of the new Berkshire investment in the big health insurer in the second quarter spurred a rally in UnitedHealth’s stock in mid August.

Barron’s reported earlier this month that Berkshire might have sold some of its large holdings in Apple and Bank of America based on information in its third-quarter 10-Q rep ort. There was nothing specific about either company in the report, however.

The 10-Q showed $12.4 billion of equity sales and $6.4 billion of purchases, continuing a multi-year trend of net sales.

Barron’s estimated a sale of about 35 million shares of Apple off a base of 280 million shares on June 30 and 50 million to 100 million shares of Bank of America off a June 30 base of just over 600 million shares.

Here’s how we came to those estimates: Berkshire disclosed large realized capital gains of about $10 billion relative to the $12 billion of stock sales in the third quarter. That would be consistent with Apple and Bank of America stock sales given that Berkshire’s cost in both those holdings is likely low.

Another clue to a potential Apple sale came from a reduction of some $1.2 billion in the cost basis of Berkshire’s holdings of stocks it classifies as “consumer products” in the third quarter. Apple likely is in that bucket—one of three groupings that Berkshire maintains for its roughly $300 billion of equity holdings. The other two classifications are financials and commercial, industrial and other.

With Berkshire’s cost basis in Apple likely about $35 a share based on disclosure a few years ago, a sale of some 35 million shares would be consistent with the $1.2 billion reduction in the consumer cost basis.

Berkshire has sharply reduced its stakes in Apple and Bank of America, and CEO Warren Buffett often sells down large holdings over multiple quarters. Berkshire’s stake in Apple of 280 million shares is down from about 900 million at year-end 2023 and the Bank of America position is off 40% since July 2024.

As noted above, Berkshire also bought $6.4 billion in stocks during the quarter. Most of the increase in cost basis disclosed in the 10-Q was in the broad commercial and industry category, indicating the added holdings in the period are in that grouping.

Write to Andrew Bary at andrew.bary@barrons.com