Warren Buffett’s company made $47 billion in stock sales in the second quarter after he cut Berkshire Hathaway’s huge share in Apple. However, earnings were lower than expected because the paper value of its remaining investments went down, even though many of the companies it owns did better.
The biggest news of the quarter was that the company sold off a lot of its Apple AAPL 0.69% shares. Buffett once said that the company’s stake in the iPhone maker was a cornerstone of its business that he planned to keep forever.
Other big investment moves Buffett made during the quarter were to sell some Bank of America stock and keep cutting his stake in the Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD CN:002594.
In its report on Saturday, Berkshire didn’t give an exact count of its Apple shares, but it did say that the investment was worth $84.2 billion at the end of the second quarter, even though shares went as high as $237.23 over the summer. A share of Apple owned by Berkshire was worth $135.4 billion at the end of the first quarter.
Berkshire BRK.B -0.80% BRK.A -0.86% said that it made $30.348 billion in the second quarter, which is $21,122 per Class A share. That’s less than the $35.912 billion, or $24,775 per A share, that it was worth a year ago, when its investments were worth $24.2 billion more.
The stocks that Berkshire still has lost $28.2 billion in value this year.
For a long time, Buffett has told investors that the best way to judge Berkshire’s success is to look at its operating earnings, since those numbers don’t include investment gains and losses, which can change a lot from quarter to quarter.
More than 15% more money was made for Berkshire than the same time last year, from $10.03 billion to $11.598 billion, or $8,072.16 per Class A share.
Many of Berkshire’s other companies, which are more affected by the economy, had disappointing results, but Geico was the only one that did well.
The earnings per share were much higher than the $6,530.25 that four analysts surveyed by FactSet Research had expected.
Berkshire owns BNSF railroad, a number of major utilities, a number of insurance companies, as well as a wide range of retail and manufacturing companies, such as Dairy Queen and See’s Candy.
