Warren Buffett filed his holdings with the SEC (form 13F), which covered the most recent calendar quarter (the final quarter of 2024). He dumped Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and Citigroup (NYSE: C). He did not sell a single share of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). In the third quarter of 2024, he had sold 100 million Apple shares, which was about 25% of his holdings in the tech company.
After some stock sales last year, Apple is still Buffett’s largest holding. He owns about 300 million Apple shares worth $75 billion.
Buffett rarely discloses why he buys or sells shares in any given company. Under SEC rules, he does not have to when he discloses the quarterly holdings of his flagship, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BHK-B). His decision cannot have been made based on Apple’s most recently reported quarter, which was released on January 30.
Most of what investors did to evaluate Apple’s business progress in the final quarter of last year was based on a full quarter of iPhone 16 sales. The news was mixed. According to GS Statcounter, Apple’s global market share in 2024 was 19%, followed by Samsung at 17%. (Buffett could only have had data for the first three quarters. Q4 global market share was not announced until last month.)
Last year, Apple’s largest financial weakness was in China, the world’s largest smartphone market. Over one billion people are estimated to own a smartphone there. Apple’s market share dropped last year. It ended up in third place with a share of 15%, which tied it with local company OPPO. China’s vivo has a share of 17%, followed by Huawei at 16%,
Apple has struggled in China recently (what Apple calls Greater China). In the most recently reported quarter, Greater China’s revenue was $18.5 billion, down from $20.8 billion in the same quarter the year before.
Given Apple’s mixed news recently, Buffett’s support is welcome.
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