Please be open to feedback and constructive criticism from others, and consider their suggestions and advice when making decisions or forming opinions.
- Manlobbi
Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy❤
No. of Recommendations: 14
For those that are curious, Berkshire's 20m share sale of AAPL in Q2 was at an average price of $201.80 / share.
There were also small additional purchases of 4 of the 5 Japanese Sogo Shosha (Itochu was the exception)
No. of Recommendations: 2
" For those that are curious, Berkshire's 20m share sale of AAPL in Q2 was at an average price of $201.80 / share."
Thanks, it should be a near certainty that he sold another 20 million shs since.
No. of Recommendations: 15
For those that are curious, Berkshire's 20m share sale of AAPL in Q2 was at an average price of $201.80 / share.
For those who are even more curious, the cost basis was around $34.25 per share, so profit of $167.54 per share, tax of $35.18 per share, net proceeds from that sale $166.62 per share. So one might infer that Mr Buffett would rather have $166.62 of cash than a share of Apple today. More specifically, he'd rather the firm had an incremental $3.332 bn in after-tax cash than those 20 million Apple shares.
I don't like to read too much into such things, but given how much cash is already in hand, that's almost a bit insulting to poor old Apple : )
Of course, the price is more than twice the average valuation level accorded by the market in the 2010s. It might not be a good enough reason to sell a "forever holding", but it's no doubt a contributing factor, or at least a very nice consolation.
Jim
No. of Recommendations: 4
The cost basis on those specific 20m shares was $591.402 million, or $29.57/share.
No. of Recommendations: 3
“There were also small additional purchases of 4 of the 5 Japanese Sogo Shosha (Itochu was the exception)”
Nice! Do we know what our updated ownership cap is on these trading houses? Thought it was 10%, but WEB said this cap has been relaxed.
Sounds like they will be Very long-term holdings from Warren & Greg’s comments in Omaha. Hope we can do a very large joint deal with some of them.
No. of Recommendations: 2
FYI:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUG1PlqAUJk
Apple was the most valuable company in the world from 2021 to 2023. But in 2024, they fell to second place. With Microsoft claiming the title for half the year. And now in 2025, Apple has fallen to third place. Behind Nvidia and Microsoft.
In just four months, Apple’s value shrank by 28%. Amounting to a 1.1 trillion dollar loss. Overpriced iPhones have led to stagnant sales, lack of innovation has allowed competitors to catch up, and their anticompetitive business practices has earned them several lawsuits.
So how did this happen? Well, Apple’s greed resulted in profit taking priority over products.The video is a nice history of Apples transition from a company focused on creating innovative products to one focused on financial engineering; it also talks about BRK investment a bit. The author has a bias, but it still informative.
tecmo
...
No. of Recommendations: 2
For those that are curious, Berkshire's 20m share sale of AAPL in Q2 was at an average price of $201.80 / share.
For those who are even more curious, the cost basis was around $34.25 per share, so profit of $167.54 per share, tax of $35.18 per share, net proceeds from that sale $166.62 per share. So one might infer that Mr Buffett would rather have $166.62 of cash than a share of Apple today. More specifically, he'd rather the firm had an incremental $3.332 bn in after-tax cash than those 20 million Apple shares.
That makes me feel good about selling all my AAPL shares (in a retirement account) this month for 204. It's in cash now.
Elan
No. of Recommendations: 1
the cost basis was around $34.25 per share, so profit of $167.54 per share, tax of $35.18 per share, net proceeds from that sale $166.62 per share. So one might infer that Mr Buffett would rather have $166.62 of cash than a share of Apple today.
I would just add that he preferred to have $166.62 of cash rather than a share of AAPL at $201.80 PLUS a future tax bill of $35.18.
Another interesting question, now that the current share price is $231, is how much Buffett would like to have another $25/share after tax, for the same shares - I guess we'll know in a few months. Given his predilection for round numbers, my guess is that he'll either take it down by another 20m shares to 260m, or by 30m to a nice quarter of a billion shares.
DTB
