On the evening of August 3rd Beijing time, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK. A), owned by Warren Buffett, released its Q2 2024 financial report.
According to the financial report, Berkshire Hathaway's second quarter revenue was $93.653 billion, compared to $92.503 billion in the same period last year, and the market expectation was $91.09 billion; The net profit for the second quarter was 30.35 billion US dollars, compared to 35.912 billion US dollars in the same period last year, and the market expectation was 17.786 billion US dollars.
In addition, the financial report shows that the company significantly reduced its holdings of Apple Inc. from 789 million shares in the first quarter to about 400 million shares in the second quarter, a decrease of about 49.3%. And after significantly reducing its holdings in Apple Inc., as of the end of the second quarter, Berkshire Hathaway's cash reserves reached a new high of $276.9 billion, compared to $189 billion at the end of the first quarter.
At the annual shareholders' meeting in May, Buffett stated that the expectation of a possible increase in US tax rates prompted him to take some profit from his position in Apple. However, even after a significant reduction in holdings, Apple remains the largest stock held by Berkshire Hathaway.
Some Berkshire Hathaway observers have anticipated this reduction, as once Buffett begins to reduce his holdings, he usually continues to reduce a large number of shares, with external expectations of a reduction of around 100 million shares.
According to some market analysts guided by Buffett's behavior, this indicates that investors are uncertain about further growth in the US stock market.
On the 4th, Dan Bin, Chairman of Dongfang Port, posted on Weibo, saying, "Seeing the news that Berkshire Hathaway's holdings in Apple have dropped from 789 million shares in the first quarter to about 400 million shares, a decrease of nearly 50%, it is not surprising to see a significant reduction in holdings. Apple accounts for about 10% of our portfolio in Dongfang Port's holdings, and even though we saw Mr. Ba's reduction, we did not follow the idea of reducing holdings because in the era of artificial intelligence, Apple is also one of the most beneficial companies. After the emergence of Apple 16, Apple 17, and artificial intelligence smartphones, the probability of new growth levels and growth spaces is still relatively high