Warren Buffett speaks at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting on May 4, 2024 in Omaha, Nebraska.
CNBC
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Uninstalled another piece Bank of America Since mid-July, its total sales have exceeded $7 billion and it has reduced its stake to 11%.
The Omaha-based conglomerate sold a total of 5.8 million Bank of America shares on Friday, Monday and Tuesday, at an average price of $39.45 per share, for a price of nearly $228.7 million. New supervision filing.
The latest action extends Berkshire’s selling streak to 12 consecutive trading days, matching the 12-trading streak that ran from July 17 to August 1.
Berkshire Hathaway has sold more than 174.7 million shares of the Charlotte-based bank for $7.2 billion, leaving 858.2 million shares remaining, or 11.1% of outstanding shares. Bank of America fell to third place on Berkshire’s list of top holdings, behind Apple and American Express. Before the frenzied sell-off, Bank of America had long been Berkshire’s second-largest holding.
Moynihan talks about Buffett
Buffett is known to have purchased $5 billion worth of Bank of America preferred shares and warrants after the 2011 financial crisis. He converted those warrants in 2017, making Berkshire the largest shareholder in Bank of America. The “Oracle of Omaha” subsequently added an additional 300 million shares around 2018 and 2019.
Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan made a rare comment on the Berkshire sale on Tuesday, saying he didn’t understand Buffett’s motivations for the sale.
“I don’t know what the hell he’s doing because, frankly, we can’t ask him. We’re not going to ask,” he said at the Barclays Global Financial Services Conference, according to records on FactSet. “But on the other hand, the market Stocks are being taken in… We’re buying some shares, so life goes on.”
Bank of America
Bank of America shares have fallen only about 1% since early July, but are up 16.7% this year, slightly better than the S&P 500.
Moynihan, who has led the bank since 2010, praised the 94-year-old for making a shrewd investment in his bank in 2011, which helped boost confidence in the troubled bank, which is struggling Struggling with losses related to subprime mortgages.
“He was a great investor in our company and stabilized our company at a time when we needed it,” he said.
To illustrate how profitable Buffett’s investments have been, Moynihan said that if investors had purchased Buffett’s bank stock on the same day as his purchase, they would have been able to get a low price of $5.50 per share. The stock last traded at just under $40 per share.
“He had the guts to go big. He did. This is a fabulous reward for him. We’re glad he got it,” Moynihan said.
— CNBC’s Alex Crippen contributed reporting.
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