Berkshire may have sold more Apple shares in Q3

Warren Buffett on May 4, 2024
Berkshire Hathaway likely trimmed its massive stakes in Apple and Bank of America during the third quarter. While Berkshire made no mention of selling either stock in its latest earnings report or 10-Q filing, the 10-Q contains hints that shares of both companies may have been offloaded.
Andrew Bary for Barron’s:
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Barron’s estimates that Berkshire may have sold about 35 million shares of Apple… It is also possible that Berkshire sold between 50 million and 100 million shares of Bank of America from its $300 billion equity portfolio.
The uncertainty likely will be resolved on Nov. 14 when Berkshire releases its 13-F report detailing its U.S.-listed equity holdings.
Here’s what we know now. Berkshire sold $12.4 billion of stocks in the period and realized $10.4 billion of pretax gains. That meant that whatever was sold had large embedded gains.
Berkshire is sitting on huge gains in its Apple holdings and likely has large gains in Bank of America as well, based on information in CEO Warren Buffett’s shareholder letter from 2021, where Berkshire disclosed the cost basis of its 15 largest stockholdings.
In the 10-Q, Berkshire also reported that its cost basis in consumer stocks fell by $1.2 billion. That could mean a sale of about 35 million Apple shares (which has a cost basis of $35 a share). Apple stock averaged about $230 a share in the period. That could have resulted in about $8 billion in Apple sales.

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MacDailyNews Take: Apple closed today at $269.07, $11.47 over Apple’s Q3 high of $257.60 (September 26, 2025).
If Berkshire sold 35 million Apple shares precisely on the Q3 high, they left $401.45 million on the table as of the close today. If Berkshire sold at the Q3 low of $202.16 (August 5, 2025), they missed out on $66.91 per share or $2.34185 billion.
So, based on today’s closing price, by selling 35 million Apple shares during Q3, Berkshire left between $401.45 million and $2.34185 billion on the table.

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