Warren Buffett dumped stocks, built a $300 billion cash pile, and updated his death plan in 2024. Here are his 6 highlights.

By Investor Empires On Jan 5, 2025

Warren Buffett is the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.Reuters/Rick Wilking

Warren Buffett praised Charlie Munger and trimmed his bets on Apple and Bank of America in 2024.
Berkshire Hathaway has reached a $1 trillion market cap and its cash pile has swelled to more than $300 billion.
Buffett has donated about $6 billion to charitable causes and has updated his posthumous giving plan.

Warren Buffett had a memorable year in 2024, selling two of his favorite stocks, building a cash pile to more than $300 billion, and leading Berkshire Hathaway to great success. 1 trillion dollars Market value for the first time.

The 94-year-old Berkshire CEO and legendary investor also paid credit to his late right-hand man, donated more than $6 billion to charitable causes, and updated his plan to donate his fortune after his death.

1. Pay respect

Warren Buffett writes a letter to Berkshire shareholders every February.Getty Images/Matthew Peyton

In his country Annual letter In February, Buffett paid tribute to Charlie Munger, his business partner and Berkshire vice chairman for more than four decades, who died at age 99 in November 2023.

“Although I have long been in charge of the construction crew, Charlie should forever be credited with being the architect,” wrote Buffett, who called himself the “general contractor” who executed Munger’s vision for Berkshire.

Buffett too Shattered hopes for a transformative acquisition anytime soon. Berkshire’s vast scale means that only a handful of companies in the country can move the needle, all of which have been “endlessly co-opted by us and by others,” he said.

“In general, we have no potential to deliver an eye-catching performance.”

The investor also noted a rise in “casino-like behavior” in the markets, and appeared to target trading apps like Robinhood. once again. “The casino is now present in many homes and tempts their residents daily.”

2. Pilgrimage to Omaha

Watch the candy box — Warren Buffett’s annual meeting is a showcase for Berkshire-owned brands like See’s Candies.Facebook / see candy

Tens of thousands of Berkshire shareholders flocked to Buffett’s hometown in May for the company’s meeting Annual meeting He watched the “Oracle of Omaha” hold court for several hours.

Buffett told the audience that he had sold part of his huge stake in Apple in the US First quarter. Him too comparison Artificial intelligence for nuclear weapons, and take responsibility for a Losing the bet On Paramount.

said the Berkshire president to regret Not listening to Munger and betting big on Costco for decades. He also sounded the alarm over the national debt and budget deficit, dismissed external threats to the dollar, and declared that he could earn a 50% annual return on $1 million.

3. Stock, cash and buybacks

World Series of Poker Cash Dollars — Berkshire Hathaway has built a cash pile worth more than $300 billion in 2024.Reuters/Las Vegas Sun/Steve Marcus

Buffett and his team sold $133 billion worth of stocks in the first nine months of 2024, and bought less than $6 billion worth. By comparison, they sold a net $24 billion of stocks in 2023, and bought a net $34 billion of stocks in 2022.

They spent less than $3 billion on buybacks between January and September of last year, and none in the third quarter, after spending nearly $70 billion on buybacks over the previous four years (what Nearly $52 billion of it in 2020 and 2021).

Ramping up stock sales and limiting buybacks helped Berkshire double its cash pile in nine months from $168 billion to $168 billion. Record $325 billion (Or $310 billion after deducting approximately $15 billion in amounts payable to purchase Treasury securities in the third quarter).

Berkshire’s cash pile now exceeds the company’s total value just over a decade ago, and accounted for a whopping 27% of its $1.15 trillion in assets at the end of September.

Buffett and his colleagues said they are hoarding money because they are struggling to find trades at valuations at historically high levels, and they don’t mind keeping money out of an overheated stock market.

4. Selling sacred cows

Buffett and his investment managers, Ted Weschler and Todd Combs, made several startling changes to Berkshire’s stock portfolio last year.

they Apple trimmedtheir largest position, rose 67% in nine months, reducing its value from $174 billion to less than $70 billion. The sharp downgrade shocked many, as Buffett had lavished praise on the iPhone maker for years, praising it as “probably the best business I know in the world” and one of Berkshire’s “four giants.”

Buffett and his deputies, too Bank of America cutTheir number. Second place, by about 26% between mid-July and mid-October, collecting more than $10 billion in revenue. The sales reduced their share from more than 13% to less than 10%, freeing them from having to disclose property changes within two days. The value of their stake fell from $35 billion to just $32 billion between January and September, because the bank’s share price rose by about a fifth during that period.

Berkshire too open Nearly $7 billion stake in insurance company Chubb in Q1 portfolio update, trims holdings like Capital One in Second quarterand bought approximately 4% of Domino’s Pizza in Third quarter While several smaller properties were cut off.

5. Giving billions

Buffett I donated Berkshire stock valued $5.3 billion to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four of his family’s foundations in June.

He said those gifts meant he had now given $55 billion to the quintet over the past 18 years, based on the value of Berkshire shares at the time of the donation.

Buffett Divided An additional $1.2 billion equity donation between the four family foundations in late November, continuing a Thanksgiving tradition he started in 2022.

The latest donations have reduced the number of his Class A shares to just over 206,000 shares, meaning he has given away roughly 57% of his shares since he pledged 99% of them to charitable causes in 2006.

6. Estate planning

Buffett unexpectedly posted a Approximately 1,500 word message For contributors along with Thanksgiving gift news.

In it, he reiterated his desire to pass on his incredible wealth to “others who were given a very short straw at birth.”

Buffett open Earlier in the year, he planned to place almost his entire fortune in a trust, entrusting his three children to distribute it to worthy causes after his death. But in his short letter in November, he acknowledged that his children are in their late 60s and early 70s and may die before they can realize his vision.

The investor said the risks had prompted him to appoint three potential trustees to be “on a waiting list” in anticipation.

Buffett also took stock of the staggering amount of wealth in America, where more than a dozen people, including himself, have personal wealth In excess of $100 billion.

“It was astonishing,” he wrote, “beyond the imaginings of Ford, Carnegie, Morgan, or even Rockefeller.” “Billions have become the new millions.”

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