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A striking detail in Berkshire Hathaway\u2019s stock portfolio has caught the attention of Wall Street as investors look for clues on what CEO Warren Buffett could do next.<\/p>\n
\u201cBerkshire owned exactly 400,000,000 shares of Apple<\/a> and 400,000,000 shares of Coca-Cola<\/a> as of June 30, 2024,\u201d David Kass, a finance professor at the University of Maryland\u2019s Robert H. Smith School of Business, tweeted on Wednesday<\/a>. \u201cIf Buffett likes round numbers, he may not be planning to sell additional shares of Apple.\u201d<\/p>\n In an email to Fortune<\/em>, Kass acknowledged that the numbers by may just be a coincidence but said he believes that Buffett is signaling he\u2019s done selling and \u201cplans to hold his Apple shares indefinitely,\u201d similar to his Coca-Cola stock.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSince Buffett has said that the CEO is the chief risk officer, I believe Buffett has been acting in a prudent fashion by reducing Apple\u2019s portfolio weight from 50% down to 30%,\u201d he added, noting that Berkshire\u2019s initial Apple investment of about $30 billion had appreciated to around $180 billion.\u00a0<\/p>\n Buffett followers\u2014and investors overall\u2014have been puzzling over his possible intentions after the conglomerate revealed a nearly 50% cut in its Apple stake<\/a> earlier this month. While analysts don\u2019t think he will completely unload the rest of his Apple shares, the dramatic cut in the second quarter raised questions about further reductions.<\/p>\n Of course, while Berkshire now holds the same number of shares in Apple and Coca-Cola, the value of those stakes are wildly different. As of Friday\u2019s closing prices, the Apple stake was worth $90.4 billion, while the Coke stake was worth $27.7 billion. <\/p>\n According to Kass, Apple accounts for almost 50% of Berkshire\u2019s equity investments, while Coca-Cola represents 9%.\u00a0<\/p>\n But because Coca-Cola is Buffett\u2019s oldest and longest stock position, which has remained steady for decades, the symmetry in his Apple shares has been too juicy to ignore, as CNBC<\/a> and the Wall Street Journal<\/a><\/em> also picked up on Kass\u2019s tweet this past week.<\/p>\n In addition, Buffett is a hard-core fan of Coca-Cola, reportedly drinking five cans of Coke a day<\/a>, while he is also an iPhone user and has praised Apple for how loyal its customers are.<\/p>\n Representatives for Berkshire Hathaway didn\u2019t immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Analysts viewed the Apple stock sale as a risk-management move<\/a>, noting that it had grown to take up a massive chunk of the portfolio by valuation. In fact, it followed earlier moves to trim the portfolio. In May,\u00a0Berkshire disclosed the sale of 100 million Apple shares<\/a>, amounting to 13% of its stake at the time.<\/p>\n CFRA Research analyst Cathy Seifert\u00a0told\u00a0Fortune<\/em> last week that the latest Apple stock sale represents a \u201cclassic rebalancing of the portfolio<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n With Berkshire\u2019s portfolio skewed so heavily toward a handful of stocks like Apple, there was the risk of too much concentration, she explained. Some profit-taking also could have been involved, as the sales occurred when the broader stock market was notching\u00a0record high after record high<\/a>.<\/p>\n The stock dump helped boost Berkshire\u2019s cash pile to a fresh high of $277 billion by the end of the second quarter, and Kass pointed out on X<\/a> that it almost equals its $285 billion investments in equities<\/a> overall.<\/p>\n But despite his latest moves, Buffett is still considered more of a buy-and-hold investor and hasn\u2019t done that much reshuffling compared to his peers.<\/p>\n \u201cOver the past decade, Berkshire\u2019s average portfolio turnover rate has been quite low, often ranging between 5% to 10% per year,\u201d Kass tweeted<\/a>. \u201cThe average turnover rate for large-capitalization managed equity funds over the past 10 years typically ranges from 30% to 60% per year.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nRecommended Newsletter: <\/strong>CEO Daily provides key context for the news leaders need to know from across the world of business. Every weekday morning, more than 125,000 readers trust CEO Daily for insights about\u2013and from inside\u2013the C-suite. Subscribe Now<\/a>.<\/div>\n