Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:) was aggressively cutting his exposure to equities in the second quarter, new filings showed.
The company’s financial statements indicated that a net amount of $75.5 billion worth of stocks were sold in the three months through June.
Buffett was seen selling nearly half of its stake in Apple (NASDAQ:) during the second quarter, a move which contributed to an increase in Berkshire’s cash reserves to $276.94 billion.
His Berkshire reported operating earnings for the second quarter of $11.6 billion.
The recent sales include Berkshire’s systematic reduction of its investment in Bank of America, previously the firm’s second-largest stock holding after Apple. Berkshire cut its stake in the bank to 12.15%, which was valued at over $35 billion as of the market close on Friday.
This sell-off occurred after Bank of America shares experienced a 75% surge from a low in late October up to the point when Berkshire initiated the sale in July.
At Berkshire’s annual meeting in May, Buffett highlighted the difficulty in deploying the company’s cash, emphasizing a preference for investments with minimal risk and high return potential.
Berkshire’s quarterly filing also revealed that after cutting its Apple investment by 13% in the first quarter, the company proceeded to sell about 49% of its remaining Apple stock in the second quarter.
The news that Buffett sold $75.5 billion worth of shares in Q2 comes at a delicate time for the U.S. stock market, which experienced a massive selloff on Friday after a softer-than-expected jobs report.
Concerns are mounting among investors as economic indicators suggested a more rapid deceleration of the U.S. economy than previously anticipated. Following the latest set of economic data, traders are increasingly viewing bad news as actually bad news.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is now in a challenging position. Several major Wall Street banks, including Citi and JPMorgan, are now calling for the Fed to implement bps rate cuts at upcoming meetings in September and November.
