Apple position cut by $20 billion during first quarter
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One of the day’s biggest pieces of news came before the meeting began.
Berkshire’s 10-Q quarterly report, released early this morning, says its large Apple stake was valued at $135.4 billion as of March 31.
Based on its price of $171.48 per share at the time, that implies Berkshire held around 789,600,000 shares, a reduction of 115,960,000 shares from what it had previously reported owning as of December 31. That’s a drop of around 12.8%.
It had reduced its position by around 1% in the fourth quarter, prompting a debate over whether Berkshire was just trimming or at the beginning of a more significant reduction.
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The value of the sold shares as of March 31 was $19.9 billion. Today, they would be worth almost $21.3 billion.
Since Berkshire rounded the value of its Apple stock to billions of dollars with just one decimal point, we won’t know the exact number of shares it still has until its 13-F stock portfolio snapshot is released later this month.
The current value of its position is around $148.8 billion, since the stock has rallied to $183.36.
Apple shares fell by almost 11% in the first quarter. Berkshire’s selling is likely responsible for at least some of that decline.
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Answering a shareholder question, Buffett said he expects Apple will remain Berkshire’s largest equity position well into the future, calling it an even better business than long-time holdings American Express and Coca-Cola.
But he said he expects capital gains tax rates will be heading higher, so shareholders won’t mind paying a lower rate now on the “little” Apple sale rather than a higher rate later.
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