Position documents show that after half a year, Berkshire Hathaway, led by "Stock God" Buffett, has begun selling its top holding, Apple, and continues to reduce its holdings in another heavy holding, Bank of America.
At the same time, Berkshire made a large position in the medical insurance giant UnitedHealth in the second quarter, buying shares worth nearly US$1.6 billion at the end of the quarter. It also revealed its most recent "mysterious" positions that have attracted much attention – Nucor and two real estate stocks.
"Mysterious" holdings in Nucor Steel have a market value of over US$800 million. Lennar and DR Horton are both real estate stocks.
In May this year, Berkshire disclosed that it had requested to keep confidential its positions in the first quarter. Since then, the "mysterious" positions have been subject to speculation. Wall Street News previously mentioned that based on financial report clues in the first two quarters of this year, the media speculated that Berkshire may have invested in an industrial company, with a total investment of close to US$5 billion.
On Thursday, these “mysterious” positions were revealed. The 13F filing shows that Berkshire had three stock holdings in the second quarter that were not disclosed in the first-quarter 13-F report submitted in May, namely: Nucor Steel, the largest steel producer in the United States, Lennar, the U.S. residential developer, and DR Horton, one of the largest real estate developers in the United States.
Among them, Berkshire bought 6.61 million shares of Nucor Steel (NUE), with a market value of US$857 million at the end of the quarter, accounting for 0.33% of the position, and ranking 25th in terms of position size.
About 7.05 million shares of real estate stock Lennar (LEN) were bought by Berkshire. The market value at the end of the quarter was about US$780 million, accounting for 0.3% of the position, and the position ranked 26th.
Berkshire bought over 1.48 million shares of DR Horton (DHI), with a market value of approximately US$191 million at the end of the quarter, accounting for 0.07% of the position.
After half a year, Bank of America reduced its holdings in Apple again by more than 40% in the past year, clearing T-Mobile positions
According to 13F documents submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) disclosed on Thursday, August 14th, Eastern Time, Berkshire reduced its holdings of Apple (AAPL) by 20 million shares in the second quarter, a decrease of 6.67% compared with the first quarter. Apple’s position share dropped from 25.76% in the first quarter to 22.31%, and the market value of the position decreased by US$4.1 billion.
This is the first time in six months that Berkshire has disclosed its reduction in Apple. In the second and third quarters of last year, Berkshire significantly reduced its holdings in Apple by 50% and 25% respectively. Since then, in the fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year, Berkshire's Apple holdings have remained unchanged.
Regardless of the proportion of positions or changes in market value, Apple was the stock that Berkshire reduced its holdings the most in the second quarter. Despite this, by the end of the second quarter, Berkshire still held about 280 million shares of Apple, and Apple was still its largest holding.
Another stock that Berkshire significantly reduced its holdings in the second quarter was Bank of America (BAC), which reduced its holdings by approximately 26.31 million shares in the quarter. The number of shares held decreased by 4.71% from the previous quarter, and the market value of the holdings decreased by US$1.24 billion. However, the proportion of holdings increased slightly from 10.19% in the first quarter to 11.12%, making it still the third largest holding.
Berkshire has reduced its holdings in Bank of America by more than 40% in the past year. By the second quarter of this year, Berkshire's Bank of America holdings had dropped from 1.03 billion shares in the middle of last year to 605 million shares, a decrease of nearly 41.3%.
In the second quarter, Berkshire liquidated 3.88 million shares of T-Mobile (TMUS), and its 0.4% position in the first quarter was reduced to zero. The telecommunications giant was the stock with the largest change in Berkshire's position after Apple in the second quarter.
Xinjin UnitedHealth's market value is nearly US$1.6 billion, and its stock price once rose by more than 9% after the bell.
The 13F document shows that Berkshire’s largest purchase of a stock in the second quarter was United Health (UNH), with approximately 5.04 million new shares of the medical insurance giant purchased in the quarter. The market value at the end of the quarter was approximately US$1.57 billion, making it Berkshire’s 18th largest position, accounting for 0.61% of the total holdings.
After the disclosure of Berkshire's holdings, UnitedHealth's stock price rose after the market closed on Thursday, rising by more than 9% after the market closed.
Considering that Berkshire’s stock portfolio is worth approximately US$300 billion, the media believes that the establishment of a position in United Health may not be Buffett’s hand, but more likely the work of Buffett’s two investment deputies, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler.
In the second quarter, Berkshire also bought a new outdoor advertising company, Lamar Advertising Company (LAMR), buying 1.17 million shares respectively, accounting for 0.06% of the position, and the market value at the end of the quarter was approximately US$140 million.
Among the top ten stocks, only Chevron increased its holdings in the second quarter
Among Berkshire's top ten holdings, Chevron (CVX) was the only stock to increase its holdings in the second quarter. Berkshire increased its holdings by 3.45 million shares in the quarter, and the market value of its holdings increased by $495 million from the previous quarter. However, in the second quarter when the stock price fell, Chevron's holdings fell from 7.69% in the first quarter to 6.79%.
By the end of the second quarter, in terms of market value of positions, Berkshire's top ten stocks were still the same "old faces" as in the first quarter, and most of the rankings were the same as in the first quarter. They are:
Apple (AAPL)
American Express (AXP)
Bank of America (BAC) rose to third place from fourth place in the first quarter.
Coca-Cola (KO) dropped from third to fourth.
Chevron (CVX)
Moody's (MCO), ranking rose from seventh to sixth.
Occidental Petroleum (OXY) fell from sixth to seventh.
Kraft Heinz (KHC)
Chubb (CB)
Kidney dialysis provider DaVita (DVA).
