Ahead of the elections, the billionaire Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, has been dumping out its Apple stock and doubling down on its cash stockpile. According to him, the government will soon raise taxes on capital gains, so he quickly exits from one of the most profitable trades of the past decade.
One of the most expensive stocks worldwide, Berkshire Hathaway is priced at $678,000 per share and held 915.6 million shares of Apple Inc. in January 2023. Buffet started laying off the Apple stock around the second quarter of 2023 despite praising how good and valuable the company is. This was continued till Q3, 2024, during which time Buffett dumped around a quarter of its remaining Apple stock.
Now, according to financial reports, Berkshire had around $160 billion stake in Apple and sold out around $84.2 billion by the start of July 2024. And another $69.9 billion by the end of Sept. 2024.
The primary reason for Buffet to sell off these stocks is because he believed the probability of the government raising the taxes on capital gains would be higher in the coming years.
However, Buffet said in a May meeting he is ultimately not concerned, “But I don’t mind at all, under current conditions, building the cash position,” Buffett said in May.
“I think when I look at the alternative of what’s available in the equity markets and I look at the composition of what’s going on in the world, we find it quite attractive.”
“We always hope at Berkshire to pay substantial federal income taxes, we think it’s appropriate,” he said.
Thanks for choosing to leave a comment. Please keep in mind that all comments are moderated according to our comment Policy.