Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has dropped additional shares of Apple in the fourth quarter of 2024 as his Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate continues to stockpile massive amounts of cash prior to the 2024 presidential election.
Cash reserves for Berkshire Hathaway have now reached $325.2 billion, signaling Buffet is predicting a volatile market as the election year winds down, with the "Oracle of Omaha" prefering liquidity to risky investments. Shares of Berkshire Hathaway remain the most expensive in the world valued at close to $678,000 per share as of Saturday, Investopedia reported.
Last week, Berkshire Hathaway let go of additional Bank of America shares, dropping its holdings in the company to less than 10% with the total value of shares sold at close to $10 billion. He began dropping Apple shares in the second quarter of 2023, a move that ran antithetical to his continuous praise of the company's value. In a 2022 letter to shareholders, Buffett called the Apple one of the "four giants" and praised CEO Tim Cook as "brilliant," Newsweek reported.
"I don't mind at all under current conditions, building the cash position," Buffett said in 2022, according to the Financial Times. "I think when I look at the alternative of what's available in the equity markets and I look at the composition of what's going on in the world, we find it quite attractive."
Buffett has run Berkshire Hathaway since 1965 and is expected to be succeeded by Vice Chairman Greg Abel, according to the company's plans following the death of Buffett's longtime partner Charlie Munger in 2023.
Despite having a history of endorsing Democrats, last week the legendary investor released a statement saying that he would not be endorsing either Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump in this year's election. Buffet, 94, is the fifth richest man in the world with an estimated net worth of $188 billion.