Warren Buffett is sitting on more than $325 billion in cash as Berkshire Hathaway continues to sell Apple shares

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Warren Buffett is now worth more than $325 billion after continuing to unload billions of dollars in shares of Apple and Bank of America this year and continuing to collect a steady stream of profits from all of Berkshire Hathaway. various businesses without finding a major acquisition.

Berkshire said it sold more than 100 million shares of Apple in the third quarter after cutting a large investment in the iPhone maker last quarter. The remaining 300 million shares valued at $69.9 billion at the end of September remain Berkshire’s largest single investment, but have been cut sharply since late last year when they were valued at $174.3 billion.

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Investors will also be disappointed to learn that Berkshire did not repurchase its own stock in the quarter.

CFRA Research analyst Cathy Seifert said shareholders will be curious as to why Buffett continues to accumulate cash. “Are they more pessimistic about the future economic and market picture than others?” she said.

Buffett said at the annual meeting in May that part of why he started selling some of Apple’s shares is that he expects tax rates to go higher in the future. But Edward Jones analyst Jim Shanahan said he wondered if part of the reason Buffett started selling Apple was connected to the death last year of Vice Chairman Charlie Munger because the sale began shortly after Munger’s death. Shanahan said Buffett was never as comfortable with the tech business as his longtime partner.

“If Charlie Munger were still alive, maybe he wouldn’t have sold the position so aggressively — maybe,” Shanahan said.

Berkshire said Friday that reinvestment results drove third-quarter profits skyward to $26.25 billion, or $18,272 per class A share. A year ago, unrealized paper investment losses dragged down the Omaha, Nebraska-based conglomerate’s earnings to a loss of $12.77 billion, or $8,824 per Class A share.

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Buffett has long advised investors to pay more attention to Berkshire’s operating income if they want to know how well the businesses they own are doing because those numbers don’t include investments. Berkshire’s bottom line profit figures can vary from quarter to quarter along with the value of investments, regardless of whether the company buys or sells anything.

By that measure, Berkshire said operating earnings were down only about 6% at $10.09 billion, or $7,023.01 per Class A share. This compares with $10.8 billion last year, or $7,437.15 per Class A share. A.

Four analysts surveyed by FactSet Research forecast that Berkshire will report operating income of $7,335.11 per Class A share.

Berkshire’s revenue was little changed at $92.995 billion. A year ago, it reported revenue of $93.21 billion. That number was ahead of the $92.231 billion revenue predicted by three analysts surveyed by FactSet.

Berkshire owns various insurance businesses, including Geico, along with the BNSF railroad, several major utilities and a diverse collection of retail and manufacturing businesses, including brands like Dairy Queen and See’s Candy.

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One of Berkshire’s insurers, Guard, reported some additional losses in previous years after managers reassessed its policies.

Berkshire has resolved one mystery of the quarter by spelling out how much it paid to acquire more of the shares in the utility business from the estate of former Berkshire board member Walter Scott.

Berkshire said it paid $2.4 billion in cash, issued $600 million in debt and gave the Scott family B-class Berkshire shares worth a little over $1 billion. So the total compensation is about $4 billion. That means the Scott family didn’t get a good price for their 8% stake in the utility like when Berkshire Vice Chairman Greg Abel sold his 1% stake in the utility business two years ago for $870 million.

Abel is slated to succeed the 94-year-old Buffett as CEO if he dies.

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