Warren Buffett dumps nearly $2 billion in Apple shares

Valentine’s Day in 2024 brought significant gifts to the lovers of acquiring stock market knowledge from some of the most prominent and famous investors. On the same day, the updated portfolios ofMichael Burry, of “The Big Short” fame, and of the Oracle of Omaha himself, Warren Buffett, were released.

Both portfolios have been, according to the latest 13-F filings, substantially changed, with perhaps the biggest surprise being that Buffett and his Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRKA, BRKB) sold as many as 10,000,382 of his Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) shares.

The sale, by press time worth approximately $1.8 billion, also bereft the famous investor of approximately $2 million worth of dividends he would have received on February 15, 2024. Still, despite the massive sale, Apple remains the largest individual holding in the portfolio, accounting for approximately 50% – $174 billion – of its total value.

What is happening with AAPL stock?

Apple’s stock market performance in 2024 has been characterized by significant ups and downs, and the company is, in fact, down 0.96% year-to-date (YTD). 

Its choppy performance, combined with Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) relative strength in recent months, prompted many to start speculating by New Year’s Day if the MSFT can become the world’s biggest company this year – and indeed, it did in early January.

AAPL YTD stock price chart. Source: Finbold

Zooming further in, Apple’s stock begins appearing even weaker as it is a mere 0.13% up in the last 30 days but 2.64% down in the last week and 0.16% in the red in the last trading session. At the time of publication, the technology giant’s stock stands at $183.86.

Despite the recent trend, the blue-chip company is still a major stock market winner and is up 4.13% in the last 6 months, 19.61% in the last 52 weeks, and an impressive 325.51% in the last 5 years.

U.S. Senator also sours on Apple

Despite the relatively successful launch of the Vision Pro, and the promise that the company will soon have a response to Microsoft’s artificial intelligence (AI) integration, it is possible that things might soon take a turn for the worse for Apple’s stock.

Senator Tommy Tuberville recently sold his entire Apple position – worth up to $550,000 – and started attempting to shortthe stock by purchasing put contracts, per the information shared on X by Quiver Quantitative, a platform best known for tracking and sharing suspicious and suspiciously timed trades made by U.S. elected officials.

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