/dhanam-english/media/media_files/e81DIG3aYmXPE6vmNQd8.jpeg)
Warren Buffett. the Oracle of Omaha
Billionaire investment guru Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sold close to 50 percent of its stake in US tech giant Apple during the year, and increased cash holdings to almost $280 billion, a Bloomberg report says.
The holding company founded by the `Oracle of Omaha’ did not specify its Apple holdings, but its take in the Silicon Valley giant in the first quarter of 2024 ending in June was estimated to be worth $135.4 billion.
Against this background, let's take a look at the top 10 firms that make up Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio. The data below was sourced from CNBC's ‘Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker’ and is accurate as of filings with the exchanges during Q1, 2024.
Top 10 Berkshire Hathaway investments
| Company | Holdings | Stake | Mkt. price | Value | % of portfolio |
|
1. Apple Inc |
789,368,450 | 5.10% | $219.86 | $173,550,547,417 | 44.30% |
| 2. Bank of America Corp | 942,429,882 | 12.10% | $37.58 | $35,416,514,966 | 9.00% |
| 3. American Express Company | 151,610,700 | 21.30% | $232.28 | $35,216,133,396 | 9.00% |
| 4. Coca-Cola Co | 400,000,000 | 9.30% | $69.33 | $27,732,000,000 | 7.10% |
| 5. Chevron Corp | 122,980,207 | 6.70% | $148.55 | $18,268,709,750 | 4.70% |
| 6. Occidental Petroleum Corp | 255,281,524 | 28.80% | $57.67 | $14,722,085,489 | 3.80% |
| 7. Kraft Heinz Co | 325,634,818 | 26.90% | $36.06 | $11,742,391,537 | 3.00% |
| 8. Moody’s Corp | 24,669,778 | 13.50% | $460.59 | $11,362,653,049 | 2.90% |
| 9. Chubb Ltd | 25,923,840 | 6.40% | $271.32 | $7,033,656,269 | 1.80% |
| 10. Mitsubishi Corp | 358,492,800 | 8.60% | $19.37 | $6,943,145,591 | 1.80% |
Financial pundits surprised
During a shareholder meeting in May 2024, Mr Buffett told investors, “Apple was an even better business than American Express and Coca-Cola.”. The scale of the sell-off has thus taken financial pundits by surprise. Many speculate that it may have been driven by long-term capital gains (LTGC) tax.
In May, Mr Buffett had indicated that Apple would likely remain its top holding, barring tax issues, “But I don’t mind at all, under current conditions, building the cash position,” he said. Selling the stock “made sense”, due to the 21 percent federal tax rate on the gains would likely grow.
Besides Apple, Berkshire has also trimmed holdings in other Buffett favourites — Bank of America (BoA) and Chinese EV maker BYD.
In BoA alone, Berkshire sold over $3.8 billion shares — its second-largest US bank's stock since mid-July. Berkshire remains BoA's largest shareholder, with 942.4 million shares or 12.1 percent stake worth about $37.2 billion, Reuters reported.
(By arrangement with livemint.com)
