• Berkshire Hathaway cut its Apple stake by 55% in the primary half of 2024, potentially missing out on $23B in profits.

• If Berkshire had not trimmed its position in Apple, its stake can be $210B at current prices.

• Apple shares have jumped 10% for the reason that second quarter, driven by optimism about Apple Intelligence.

Berkshire Hathaway slashed its Apple position by 55% in the primary half of 2024, whilst the iPhone maker’s stock traded at or near record highs.

Calculations by Business Insider suggest Berkshire Hathaway’s sales of Apple stock in the primary and second quarters of this 12 months resulted in about $23 billion in missed profits for Warren Buffett’s conglomerate.

Berkshire Hathaway entered 2024 with an enormous stake in Apple, holding 905.6 million shares price about $174 billion on the time.

At current prices, that stake would have been price about $210 billion. As a substitute, Berkshire Hathaway’s current stake in Apple was price $84 billion at the top of the second quarter.

Berkshire Hathaway trimmed its Apple stake by 13% in the primary quarter, selling about 116.2 million shares. Within the second quarter, it sold 389.7 million shares.

For the reason that second quarter, shares of the iPhone maker have soared about 10% to record highs around $232 per share as investor excitement grows around the corporate’s Apple Intelligence technology fueling growth in its hardware sales.

Since it’s unattainable to know exactly what price Berkshire Hathaway sold the Apple shares at, Business Insider relied on the typical share price of Apple stock in the primary and second quarters because the sales price.

The calculations suggest Berkshire sold its 505.9 million shares of Apple at a weighted average price of about $186.15 per share in the primary half of 2024.

The difference between the weighted average price and the value of Apple stock on Thursday nets out the $23.1 billion in missed profits for Berkshire Hathaway.

That is to not say it was a nasty trade on Berkshire’s part.

It’s nearly unattainable to perfectly time an exit out of such an enormous stake, and Berkshire’s Apple trade will go down as one among its best in history.

Berkshire began constructing a stake in Apple in the primary quarter of 2016, and in response to data from HedgeFollow, its estimated average buy price is $39.59 per share.

Since then, Apple shares have soared 485%.

What’s much more impressive is that Berkshire Hathaway began constructing its massive stake within the tech giant when it was already the biggest company on the earth as measured by market capitalization.

Few investors knew how much greater Apple could get from there, apart from Buffett.

Read the unique article on Business Insider