Warren Buffett has once again sold off another large piece of his stake in Apple.
As CNBC reported Saturday (Nov. 2), the billionaire investor’s Berkshire Hathaway had $69.9 billion worth of Apple shares at the end of September, according to its latest earnings report. This implies Buffett had sold around a quarter of his stake with about 300 million shares remaining. In all the stake is down 67.2% from the close of the third quarter in 2023.
Buffett began unloading his stake in the tech giant in the closing quarter of last year, and continued this trend earlier this year with the surprise sale of nearly half his shares.
He said earlier this year that the sell-offs were tied to his wish to avoid a higher tax bill if rates were to climb to cover an increasing U.S. deficit.
“It doesn’t bother me in the least to write that check and I would really hope with all that America’s done for all of you, it shouldn’t bother you that we do it and if I’m doing it at 21% this year and we’re doing it a little higher percentage later on, I don’t think you’ll actually mind the fact that we sold a little Apple this year,” Buffett said.
As the CNBC report noted, it’s not clear what has sparked the ongoing sell-off, though analysts and shareholders have speculated it was related to high valuations as well as portfolio management to reduce concentration. At one time Berkshire’s Apple holding was so large it accounted for half of its equity portfolio.
Meanwhile, last week brought the news that Apple’s shares had fallen amid investor uncertainty about the prospects for the company’s rollout of artificial intelligence (AI) features.
During its Thursday (Oct. 31) earnings call, Apple outlined an AI strategy that includes December plans for ChatGPT integration and extended language support for Apple Intelligence, PYMNTS reported.
The December launch marks the company’s latest effort to make its mark in the AI arena, where rivals such as Microsoft, Google and OpenAI have already established a presence.
Analysts told PYMNTS last week that Apple’s rollout of its AI features could challenge the notion that the tech giant has fallen behind in the AI race.
“Apple may be late to the AI surge compared to Google and Amazon, which have been adding AI to products for years,” Steven Athwal, CEO of The Big Phone Store, told PYMNTS. “But Apple has always been about timing and refinement. While others rushed to put out the latest in AI tech, Apple focused on privacy, security and user experience.”
