Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N), run by billionaire Warren Buffett, extended its selling of Bank of America (BAC.N), tab shares, and has shed more than $3.8 billion of the second-largest U.S. bank’s stock since mid-July.
Berkshire sold approximately 19.2 million Bank of America shares for $779 million between July 30 and Aug. 1, according to a Thursday night regulatory filing.
Buffett’s conglomerate has sold 90.4 million Bank of America shares since July 17, in 12 straight trading days of selling.
It remains the Charlotte, North Carolina-based bank’s largest shareholder, owning 942.4 million shares, or 12.1% of reported shares outstanding, worth about $37.2 billion as of Thursday.
Bank of America shares fell as much as 4.3% in Friday morning trading. Through Thursday, they had fallen more than 10% since Berkshire began selling, while the KBW Nasdaq Bank Index, opens new tab(.BKX), fell just 2.5%.
The sales began after Bank of America’s stock price had risen by about two-thirds since late October, and traded at more than 1.2 times book value.
That boosted the value of Berkshire’s shares to over $45 billion, more than triple the $14.6 billion, opens new tab it paid for them.
Berkshire must keep reporting sales until its stake falls below 10%. It will report second-quarter earnings on Saturday morning.
Buffett, 93, one of the world’s most revered investors, has invested continuously in Bank of America since 2011, when Berkshire bought $5 billion of preferred stock.
That purchase signaled Buffett’s confidence in Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan’s ability to restore the bank to health following the 2008 financial crisis.
Buffett told CNBC, opens new tab in April 2023 he liked Moynihan “enormously,” and at the time did not want to sell the bank’s stock.
Berkshire is based in Omaha, Nebraska. Its operations include Geico car insurance, the BNSF railroad and several dozen other insurance, energy, industrial and retail businesses.
By Reuters
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