Berkshire Hathaway’s highly scrutinized Apple stake has been held steady for two straight quarters, after dumping two-thirds of the shares in a head-turning selling spree last year. Warren Buffett’s conglomerate owned 300 million shares of Apple sharp at the end of 2024, the same amount it had at the end of the third quarter, according to a regulatory filing. The iPhone maker remains the largest stock stake by far for Berkshire, despite the recent sales. Berkshire had slashed its big Apple stake for four quarters in a row. Back in the third quarter of 2023, the Omaha-based giant held 915.6 million shares of the tech stock. At Berkshire annual meeting last year, Buffett noted that selling “a little Apple” would benefit Berkshire shareholders in the long run — if the tax on capital gains is raised down the road by a U.S. government wanting to plug a climbing fiscal deficit. However, the magnitude of the selling made many believe it was more than just a tax-saving move. Some speculated that Buffett was concerned about high market valuation, while others thought it was part of portfolio management as the Apple stake once took up more than half of Berkshire’s portfolio. Investors will look to Buffett’s annual letter, to be released Saturday morning along with Berkshire’s quarterly earnings, for commentary about Apple as well as the broader market. Overall, Buffett has been in selling mode, with sales exceeding stock purchases for nine consecutive quarters, according to Edward Jones analyst James Shanahan, who covers Berkshire. Berkshire’s monstrous cash pile topped a record $300 billion in the third quarter of 2024 as a result. “Solid free-cash-flow generation has contributed to the increase, but stock sales have had a far greater impact,” Shanahan said in a note.
