Heavy cash out, Buffett reduced 57 billion yuan in 2 months!

Buffett continues to reduce his holdings in Bank of America Corp (BAC.US). The latest documents show that Berkshire Hathaway sold Bank of America Corp continuously from September 17th to 19th, raising $896 million (approximately 6.3 billion RMB). Selling 57 billion RMB in 2 months, Buffett continues to reduce his holdings in Bank of America Corp. Berkshire Hathaway has submitted multiple filings to regulators regarding the sale of Bank of America Corp shares in the past 2 months. Since July 17th, Berkshire Hathaway has sold a total of 1.97 billion shares of Bank of America Corp, reducing its stake by 19% and raising a total of $8.09 billion (approximately 57 billion RMB). After the reduction, as of September 19th, Berkshire Hathaway's holdings in Bank of America Corp have been reduced to 836 million shares. Based on the latest closing price of $40.87 per share, Berkshire Hathaway's holdings in Bank of America Corp are valued at $34.167 billion. Berkshire Hathaway may still be the largest shareholder of Bank of America Corp, with a stake of 10.77%. Prior to July 17th, Berkshire Hathaway held 1.033 billion shares of Bank of America Corp, representing a 13.08% stake. Buffett's holdings in Bank of America Corp date back to his investment in 2011. As of Friday's closing, Bank of America Corp fell nearly 1.5% to close at $40.27. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway invested $5 billion in Bank of America Corp in 2011 when the stock price was low, receiving preferred stock and warrants. Years later, Bank of America Corp increased its dividend payout rate, and Buffett converted it into common stock. Data shows that Bank of America Corp has maintained a dividend payout rate of over 20% per year since 2017, with an average annual dividend yield of around 2%. After several adjustments, Berkshire Hathaway gradually became the largest shareholder of Bank of America Corp. Between 2020 and July 2021, Berkshire Hathaway had always held 1.033 billion shares of Bank of America Corp without reducing any. Since 2011, the stock price of Bank of America Corp has increased by eight times. Roughly calculated, Berkshire Hathaway has recovered its investment cost from the $8.09 billion it raised and dividends received over the years. Reducing holdings in various stocks, Berkshire Hathaway's cash reserves near $2 trillion In recent months, Buffett has significantly reduced holdings in various stocks. According to reports, Berkshire Hathaway reduced its stake in Apple Inc. by over 389 million shares in the second quarter, worth about $82 billion (approximately 580 billion RMB), a decrease of 49.3% from the first quarter, reducing its proportion in the investment portfolio by over 10 percentage points. Berkshire Hathaway also disposed of 6.12 million shares ($840 million) of cloud computing star Snowflake; reduced 4.37 million shares ($680 million) of Chevron Corporation; and reduced 2.65 million shares ($367 million) of financial services company COF It is worth noting that Buffett has been net selling stocks for seven consecutive quarters, shrinking the overall size of the US stock holdings. As of the end of June, Berkshire Hathaway's cash reserves were close to $277 billion (approximately 1.95 trillion RMB), mainly from selling a large number of stocks, especially Apple Inc. stock. Even Buffett is no longer keen on buying his own stock. Berkshire Hathaway disclosed in August that after a significant amount of buybacks in previous quarters, recent stock buybacks have greatly slowed down. According to documents, Berkshire Hathaway repurchased approximately $345 million in shares in the second quarter, the smallest quarterly buyback since 2018. Aash Shah, Director of Investments and Senior Portfolio Manager at Summit Global Investments, said: "Overall, Buffett seems to believe that the best investment right now is cash and bonds." Previously, at the 2024 Annual Shareholders Meeting, Buffett explicitly stated that holding a large amount of cash is "quite attractive" compared to available funds in the stock market and conflicts around the world. "We are happy to spend money, but it must be something (acquisitions or investments in companies) that is doing something with very little risk and can make us a lot of money." Buffett's continuous adjustments to the investment portfolio seem to have been recognized by the capital markets. On August 28th, Berkshire Hathaway's market value exceeded $1 trillion for the first time, becoming the seventh listed company in the US with a total market value exceeding $1 trillion. Berkshire Hathaway's stock price hit a record high on September 4th.