$35 Billion Shares Sold: Oracle Of Omaha Warren Buffett Cuts Insurance Holdings, Exits 7 Stocks Entirely In Q3

Billionaire and renowned ace investor, Warren Buffet had quite a busy third quarter of 2023. His Berkshire Hathaway has made key changes to their portfolio by exiting seven stocks completely and slashing stakes in insurance holdings during Q2. As much as 35 billion dollars worth of shares have been sold in the September 2023 quarter.

As per the S&P Global report, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. substantially cut its stake in three insurance-focused corporations and completely exited its positions in seven other companies during the third quarter.

The report pointed out that Buffet's conglomerate trimmed its holdings in Aon PLC, Markel Group Inc. and Globe Life Inc. by 5.4%, 66.3% and 67%, respectively, according to the conglomerate's latest Form 13F.

Berkshire's shareholding stood at 4,100,000 shares in Aon, which were valued at about $1.33 billion, while its stake in Markel stood at 158,718 shares, worth roughly $233.7 million. The conglomerate's remaining 831,014 shares in Globe Life were valued at approximately $90.4 million at the end of the September quarter.

Data from S&P Global revealed that the Oracle of Omaha's top common stock holdings in Q3 2023 stood at $313.26 billion, down by $34.93 billion as against holdings of $348.19 billion as of Q2 of 2023.

Furthermore, Berkshire offloaded its entire holdings in seven companies during the quarter. These were Activision Blizzard Inc., General Motors, Celanese Corp, John & Johnson, Procter & Gamble Co., Mondelez International Inc., and United Parcel Services.

The largest selling was in Activision. As per S&P, the exit from Activision reflects a sharp reversal from its 2022 approach, when it bolstered its stake in the video game developer amid a takeover bid by Microsoft Corp. But with a price tag of roughly $75 billion, the deal took 21 months to get through global regulators and did not close until just recently. The purchase represents the biggest deal in Microsoft's history.

Also, S&P added, Berkshire sold 14,658,121 shares of Activision during the third quarter, which had been valued at about $1.24 billion as of June 30.

The second-largest position that the conglomerate dropped was General Motors Co., shedding 22,000,000 shares worth roughly $848.3 million as of the end of June.

In Celanese, Berkshire sold the entire $620.5 million worth of shares aggregating to 5,358,535, while in Johnson & Johnson, about 327,100 amounting to $47.9 million were exited. Further, Berkshire's entire stake sale was to the tune of 315,400 in P&G valuing $47.9 million, 578,000 shares in Mondelez worth $42.2 million, and United Parcel where entire 59,400 shares worth $10.6 million were sold.

Amidst this, Berkshire also added a quirkier venture to his list of investments by picking up a small initial stake in the Atlanta Braves Holdings Inc., which is comprised of the Atlanta Braves baseball team, plus affiliated media and other properties around the team, S&P said.

By the end of the September quarter, Berkshire's position of 223,465 shares in Atlanta Braves Holdings was valued at roughly $8 million.

As of September 30, 2023, iPhone maker Apple Inc is Buffet's largest shareholding in value terms. He holds about 915,560,382 shares or 5.9% worth $156.75 billion in the world's most-valued company.

Apart from Apple, in top 5 stocks of Berkshire are -- $28.28 billion in Bank Of America (13% stake), $22.62 billion in American Express (20.6% stake), $22.39 billion in Coca-Cola (9.2% stake), and $18.59 billion in Chevron Corp (5.9% stake).