Berkshire Hathaway’s highly scrutinized apple stock has been stable for the second consecutive quarter after turning the head of last year’s sale and dumping two-thirds of its shares. Warren Buffett’s conglomerate owned 300 million shares and 300 million shares in Apple Sharp at the end of 2024, according to regulatory filings. iPhone makers remain far larger stocks for Berkshire despite recent sales. Berkshire cut Big Apple stocks for a fourth in a row. Back in the third quarter of 2023, the Omaha-based giant held 915.6 million shares of high-tech stock. At the Berkshire Annual Meeting last year, Buffett pointed out that selling “Little Apple” would benefit Berkshire shareholders in the long run. However, many believed that the size of the sale was more than just a tax move. Some speculated that Buffett was concerned about a high market valuation, while others thought Apple’s stock was part of portfolio management, as it once accounted for more than half of Berkshire’s portfolio. Investors will turn to Buffett’s annual letter, which will be released Saturday morning along with Berkshire’s quarterly revenue for commentary on Apple and the broader market. Buffett is overall in sales mode, surpassing nine quarters of stock purchases, according to James Shanahan, an analyst at Edward Jones, who covers Berkshire. As a result, Berkshire’s huge cash mountain surpassed a record $300 billion in the third quarter of 2024. “Solid free cash flow generation contributed to the increase, but stock sales had a much greater impact,” Shanahan said in a memo.
