BRK.A: Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Halves Apple Stake, Sits on $277B Cash Pile

Buffett’s company generated a 15% increase in after-tax operating profits for the quarter and picked up more than $47 billion in profits from Apple.

• Berkshire Hathaway BRK.A, Warren Buffett’s sprawling conglomerate, axed its stake in Apple by half in the most recent quarter in a bigger effort to consolidate the portfolio while substantially growing its stack of dollars. The company cut its position in the iPhone maker by $50 billion, the equivalent of 390 million shares, to $84.2 billion. In the process, Berkshire cashed out monster profits of $47.2 billion.
• Add that to a total of $76 billion in dumped stocks and now Berkshire is sitting on a record $277 billion pile of cash, up from $189 billion in the previous quarter. Buffett’s corporate giant realized a 15% gain in after-tax operating profits to $11.6 billion as the company’s insurance business enjoyed windfall (much like most of the other businesses in the portfolio). Repurchased stocks amounted to just $345 million.
• Berkshire’s class A stock fell 0.9% Friday to $641,435, while the class B shares were off 0.8% to $428.36. The company’s class A shares are currently the most expensive stock in the world on a per-share basis due to Buffett’s intention to keep speculators from playing around with the company’s equity. On the year, class A shares are up a solid 16% ahead of today’s opening bell.