The cashier’s Berkshire Hathaway reached US$325.2 billion in the third quarter, a record for the conglomerate, while the mega-investor Warren Buffett continued to refrain from major acquisitions and reduced some of its most significant equity holdings.
Berkshire has once again reduced its holdings in Apple, the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate said Saturday. in a statement.
Buffet’s company stake in the iPhone maker was valued at $69.9 billion at the end of the quarter, down from $84.2 billion in the second quarter, indicating that the company reduced its stake by about 25%. %.
Berkshire first disclosed its stake in Apple in 2016 and had invested $31.1 billion in the 908 million Apple shares it held as of the end of 2021. Buffett said in May that Apple was an “even better” business. than two other companies in which Berkshire owns shares: American Express and Coca-Cola.
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Apple would likely remain its top holding, indicating that tax issues prompted the sale, “but I don’t mind at all, under current conditions, adding to the cash position,” he said.
Berkshire was net seller of shares in the quarter. The company reported $34.6 billion in net share sales in the three months to September. Berkshire’s operating profit (EBITDA) fell 6% from a year earlier to $10.09 billion as insurance underwriting earnings declined.
Underwriting profits across the company’s suite of insurance businesses fell 69% to $750 million, compared with $2.4 billion a year earlier, driven by higher losses at Berkshire Hathaway Primary Group.
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The company has struggled to find ways to invest its accumulated cash, as Buffett considered market prices too high to find attractive deals. At its annual shareholder meeting in May, Buffett said Berkshire was in no rush to spend “unless we think we’re doing something with very little risk that could make us a lot of money.”
Buffett, 94, used some of the accumulated cash to buy back some of his own shares, although even that has become more expensive recently. Berkshire shares are up 25% this year, bringing its market value to $974.3 billion. Its market capitalization surpassed $1 trillion for the first time on August 28.
This past quarter, Berkshire did not buy back its own shares for the first time since changing its policy in 2018.
The increase in Berkshire’s cash continues to be exponential. In the second quarter of this year, the conglomerate it already had more than R$270 billion available for new investments (The image below gives a dimension of this amount).
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