Berkshire Hathaway Inc. cut its stake in Apple Inc. by about 50% as part of a massive second-quarter selling spree that has left billionaire Warren Buffett’s cash pile at a record $276.9 billion.
Berkshire Hathaway, based in Omaha, Nebraska, said Saturday that it sold $75.5 billion worth of shares during the second quarter on a net basis. Operating income rose to $11.6 billion, compared with $10 billion in the same period a year earlier.
Berkshire Hathaway has struggled to find ways to deploy its mountain of cash in a deal-slackening environment. At the company’s annual shareholder meeting in May, Buffett said he was in no rush to spend money “unless we think we’re doing something that has very little risk and can make us a lot of money.”
Buffett has been selling stocks as the S&P 500 surged to a record high in mid-July, though the index has fallen in each of the past three weeks on concerns that the AI euphoria was overdone. On Friday, weak labor data underscored the risk of an economic slowdown, and the S&P 500 fell 1.8%.
Regulatory filings also show that Berkshire Hathaway reduced its stake in Bank of America Corp. in the second quarter, with the company reporting a stake worth $41.1 billion.
Berkshire Hathaway bought back about $345 million of its own shares during the quarter, the least amount since the company changed its buyback policy in 2018.
Cupertino, California-based Apple reported this week that sales to China fell 6.5% to $14.7 billion in the third quarter, below Wall Street expectations of $15.3 billion.
The results have raised concerns that Apple is losing ground in one of its most important overseas markets. Apple faces stiff competition in the region, the government has imposed restrictions on the use of foreign technology in some workplaces, and economic growth in China has deteriorated.
Apple has blamed much of the decline on the effects of a stronger dollar, saying its core business in China is actually healthier than before. Three months ago, executives said the slowdown was not due to weak iPhone performance but to weak sales of other products.
Apple shares have soared this year, helped by investors’ hopes that new AI technology will help boost sales. But on July 28, Bloomberg News reported that Apple’s upcoming AI features will arrive later than expected, missing the initial rollout of upcoming iPhone and iPad software fixes but giving the company more time to fix bugs.
The company plans to start rolling out Apple Intelligence to customers as part of upcoming software updates by October, according to people familiar with the matter.
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