Warren Buffett Sells Nearly $10B in 3 Months

Buffett Dumps Nearly $10 Billion Worth of Bank of America Stocks in Three Months.

On October 2nd (Wednesday) local time, the latest filings disclosed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed that Berkshire Hathaway, under Warren Buffett, sold approximately 8.4 million shares of Bank of America common stock between September 30th and October 2nd, cashing out about $337.9 million. Since July, Berkshire Hathaway has cumulatively reduced its holdings of Bank of America stocks by about $9.751 billion.

Following this reduction, Berkshire Hathaway's stake in Bank of America's outstanding shares has dropped to 10.2%. According to relevant regulations, if the stake exceeds 10%, the transaction must be disclosed within two days; if the stake is 10% or less, there is no need to promptly disclose the transaction details, which could typically be delayed for several weeks and reported in each quarterly report.

In July, Berkshire Hathaway began a large-scale reduction of Bank of America stock. Throughout the month, the company cumulatively sold about $3.825 billion worth of Bank of America stocks.

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In August, Berkshire Hathaway sold a total of about $2.38 billion worth of Bank of America stocks. Between August 15th and 19th, Berkshire Hathaway sold about $550 million worth of Bank of America stocks. Then, between August 23rd and 27th, it sold about $981.9 million worth of stocks. Between August 28th and 30th, it further sold approximately 21 million shares of Bank of America, cashing out about $848 million.

Entering September, Berkshire Hathaway's reduction activities continued. Between September 3rd and 5th, the company sold about $760 million worth of Bank of America stocks. Between September 6th and 10th, the company sold a smaller amount of about $229 million. Between September 17th and 19th, it sold about $896 million worth. Between September 20th and September 24th, it sold about 21 million shares of Bank of America common stock, cashing out about $863 million. Between September 25th and September 27th, it slightly cashed out $461 million.

Between September 30th and October 2nd, Berkshire Hathaway sold over 8.54 million shares of Bank of America stocks, about $337.9 million, with transaction prices ranging from $39.3994 to $39.6141 per share.

The latest filings announced by the SEC on Wednesday show that Berkshire Hathaway further sold about 8.54 million shares of Bank of America common stock, cashing out about $338 million. It is worth mentioning that Buffett's pace of selling Bank of America stocks in the last two times has begun to slow down, with each sale totaling far less than the average amount of about $750 million per round (usually lasting three days) over the past three months.

In summary, from July to early October, Berkshire Hathaway has cashed out a total of about $9.751 billion. It is reported that, without considering the impact of taxes, the total profit from Buffett's sale of Bank of America stocks since mid-July, plus the dividends received since 2011, has exceeded the $14.6 billion spent on purchasing Bank of America shares.

After the latest sale, Berkshire Hathaway still holds 794 million shares of Bank of America. According to the latest closing price, the remaining stake of Berkshire Hathaway in Bank of America is still worth as high as $31.1 billion, firmly holding the position of the largest shareholder.As for whether Buffett's consecutive selling actions really mean he is going to completely sell off Bank of America, it is still unknown. However, according to his habits, when he starts selling a stock, he will eventually sell it out. In recent years, Berkshire Hathaway has sold out the stocks of many banks, including U.S. Bancorp, Wells Fargo, and BNY Mellon.

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

In recent months, Buffett has significantly reduced various stocks.

According to the report, Berkshire Hathaway reduced its holdings of Apple by more than 389 million shares in the second quarter, with a market value of about $82 billion (about 580 billion yuan), a decrease of 49.3% compared to the first quarter, and a decrease of more than 10 percentage points in the proportion of the investment portfolio compared to the previous quarter.

Berkshire Hathaway also sold out 6.12 million shares ($840 million) of cloud computing star Snowflake; reduced 4.37 million shares ($680 million) of Chevron; reduced 2.65 million shares ($367 million) of financial holding company COF...

It is worth noting that Buffett has sold net stocks for seven consecutive quarters, and the overall scale of U.S. stock holdings has shrunk. As of the end of June, Berkshire Hathaway's cash reserves approached $277 billion (about 1.95 trillion yuan), and this huge amount of cash mainly came from the sale of a large number of stocks, especially Apple stocks.

Even Buffett is unwilling to buy more of his own stocks. Berkshire Hathaway disclosed in August that after a large number of repurchases in the previous quarters, the recent stock repurchase has significantly slowed down. According to the documents, Berkshire Hathaway repurchased about $345 million worth of stocks in the second quarter, which is the smallest quarterly repurchase scale since 2018.

Previously, at the 2024 annual shareholders' meeting, Buffett clearly stated that holding a large amount of cash is "quite attractive" compared to the available funds in the stock market and conflicts around the world. "We are very willing to spend money, but it must be (the companies acquired or invested in) doing something with very little risk and can make us a lot of money."