Berkshire Hathaway Q4/FY2024
In Q4 2024, Berkshire Hathaway made few significant changes to its five largest holdings. The investment company only trimmed a small portion of its stake in Bank of America (-14.72% QoQ) during the past quarter. Berkshire Hathaway maintained its other four largest positions unchanged, with no transactions occurring in these holdings during the final quarter of 2024.
As Berkshire saw more cash inflows than outflows in Q4 2024, its C&CE position grew further, reaching new record highs. As of December 31, 2024, this cash and cash equivalents position, combined with the fund’s short-term investments in U.S. Treasury Bills, was valued at $334 billion—representing a doubling (+99.4%) compared to December 31, 2023. This increase was largely driven by the company’s reduction of its stake in Apple.
Over the past year, Berkshire Hathaway reduced its Apple position each quarter, selling 116 million shares in Q1 2024, 389 million shares in Q2 2024, and 100 million shares in Q3 2024. This selling process halted by the end of Q3 2024, as Berkshire reported no changes to its Apple holdings in Q4 2024.
As of December 31, 2024, Berkshire’s position in Apple—currently the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization—was valued at $75 billion. This continues to make it Berkshire’s largest holding. Following Apple, its next largest positions are American Express ($45 billion), Bank of America ($30 billion), Coca-Cola ($25 billion), and Chevron ($17 billion).
With such a substantial cash position, Berkshire’s investment team is primarily reliant on the world’s largest companies (as measured by market capitalization). The absence of a new significant portfolio addition suggests that the team may view these companies as overvalued. However, the firm did engage in smaller-scale purchase transactions during the past quarter, such as expanding its stakes in Domino’s Pizza, Pool Corp., and SiriusXM. These positions, however, represent only 0.03 to 0.17 percentage points of the total portfolio.
Is Berkshire waiting for new (major) market opportunities, believing that valuations have now become excessively high?
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