I suspect Apple is going under. Maybe not immediately but they’re on the way down and Buffett is bailing out to minimize his risk of loss.
This is actually the second consecutive quarter that Berkshire’s largest position by market value has been pared down by the company’s brightest investment minds. The logic behind this recent selling likely has to do with corporate taxation.
Whereas the roughly 10 million shares of Apple sold during the fourth quarter were to offset select investment losses, the capital gains Buffett’s company recognized from selling 115 million shares of Apple in the first quarter may have to do with front-running fiscal policy changes in Washington, D.C.
At the moment, the peak federal corporate income tax rate is 21%. President Joe Biden has proposed increasing the peak rate to 28%. With higher tax rates likely in the future, Buffett has opined that investors won’t gripe about locking in gains now at a lower corporate tax rate.
Despite selling around 125 million shares of Apple, combined, over the previous two quarters, the Oracle of Omaha has made clear that it’s going to be a longtime holding for Berkshire Hathaway.
Apple is going under just at the DOJ is suing them for having a monopoly on mobile phones.
Buffet still says Apple is best company in the world and has a great future. He still owns $174 billion of it, or about 40% of Berkshire’s total value. That’s about four times bigger than Berkshire’s second-biggest public stock holding, Bank of America, and makes Berkshire the No. 2 Apple shareholder, behind only Vanguard.
This is a little pruning after a huge run, not a running away. Do you have 40% of your investments in one stock? If you do, you must think highly of it.
Apple has attached itself to China and then has doubled down.
That is a very dangerous strategy in today’s world.
Apple just announced they are buying back $110 Billion of their own shares
When Steve Jobs died the writing was on the wall for Apple. It’s been a dead man walking ever since.
It helps to read the article.