Warren Buffett [Berkshire Hathaway]
Following both news of Berkshire Hathaway’s selling over half its holdings in the company, and a wider fear of recession taking a steep toll on international stock markets, Apple shares took a steep dive as trading began on Monday.
Warren Buffett is a long-time proponent of Apple, but it has now been revealed that his firm Berkshire Hathaway has now cut its investment by more than half. Chiefly as a result of this, shares in Apple initially declined by 11%, though they have since been recovering.
Buffett’s firm sold off its stock across the second quarter, now leaving it owning 2.8% of Apple. Despite the large sell-off, Berkshire Hathaway’s stake is worth around $88 billion.
In March 2024, though, the company owned shares worth around $140 billion. As well as some sales reported in May, much of Buffett’s sell-off has capitalized on how Apple’s stock reached a record high in June 2024.
That increase came on the back of the firm’s Apple Intelligence launch, but rumors and anticipation of that announcement had already reversed the firm’s stock trajectory. Having seen shares decline throughout the year, Apple’s fortunes entirely turned around in May 2025.
Consequently, while the market seemed to initially think Berkshire Hathaway’s sell-off was indicative of it losing faith in the firm, it’s likely to be more of it taking advantage of recent large rises in the value of its shares.
According to financial commentators, as reported by Bloomberg, if Buffett’s move was in anticipation of Apple’s stock falling, Berkshire Hathaway would have sold all of its shares.
According to CNBC, the sell-off could be because of “portfolio management concerns.” At one point half of Berkshire Hathaway’s equity portfolio was in Apple shares.
Then, too, CNBC points out that Buffett sold 13% of his then stake in Apple in the first quarter of 2024. Reportedly, he indicated that this was a tax-saving move, in anticipation of the US government raising rates to fund a fiscal deficit.
Both CNBC and Bloomberg also argue that global stock markets are on the brink of a major correction. That’s expected to be triggered by fears of an economic slowdown.
Repeatedly, reports on investor reactions to the Berkshire Hathaway sell off see advisors say not to sell. Perhaps a consequence, Apple’s share price has begun to recover.
At time of writing, Apple’s share price is now down 4.66% on the previous working day’s trading.
