Warren Buffet is moving towards his departure from the post of CEO and with this, Berkshire Hathaway is continuously making major changes in its investment portfolio. Berkshire Hathaway has reduced its stake in two stocks – Apple and Bank of America. On the other hand, his company has made a new stake of about $ 4.9 billion in Alphabet (Google’s parent company).
This change is being made slowly, but gives a clear indication of where Berkshire wants to place its trust in the coming years.
According to filings with US stock exchanges, Berkshire has bought 17.8 million shares of Alphabet, which is worth $4.9 billion as of Friday’s closing. This is a special step for Buffett’s company, which has always distanced itself from the tech sector. Google’s big bet on AI, cloud and data infrastructure makes this investment more important.
This purchase of Alphabet reflects a gradual change in Berkshire’s strategy.
Berkshire is continuously reducing stake in Apple
With the purchase of Alphabet, Berkshire has once again reduced its stake in Apple. Now he is left with 23.82 crore shares of Apple, which were 28 crore before this deal. This is part of a series of cuts over several quarters, in which nearly three-quarters of Apple’s initial stake has been sold.
Despite this, Apple is still the largest investment in Berkshire’s stock portfolio, valued at $60.7 billion.
Warren Buffet has also reduced his stake in Bank of America in this quarter. He has sold 3.72 crore shares, in which the company’s stake has now come down to 7.7%. This is Berkshire’s third largest holding, but stake reduction continues in view of pressure and regulatory challenges in the banking sector. Apart from this, Berkshire has completely exited America’s leading homebuilder company DR Horton. This is an indication that Buffett is distancing himself from housing related businesses.
Record balance of $382 billion
Berkshire currently has a record cash of $382 billion on its balance sheet. Meanwhile, Buffett has recently made some select big deals. This includes-
– Acquisition of petrochemical unit of Occidental Petroleum for $9.7 billion
– New stake worth $1.6 billion in UnitedHealth Group
The $4.9 billion investment in Alphabet is part of this pattern.
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