94-year-old Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway has been on a multi-month selling spree of Bank of America shares, raising many questions about the motivation behind abruptly dumping billions of dollars worth of BofA stock. Berkshire's latest filing indicates that the selling pressure is finally easing as share price slides.
On Tuesday, Buffett's Berkshire reported a $229 million stock sale over three trading sessions. The average price was around $39.30 per share, among the lowest reported since he began abruptly selling the position in mid-July.
Bloomberg noted:
"The fresh disposals marked a significant slowdown from the eight prior rounds, in which his conglomerate generated an average of about $870 million each time, based on filings that typically spanned three days of trading.
"Altogether, Berkshire has generated nearly $7.2 billion since Buffett began shrinking the stake almost two months ago. The conglomerate still holds just over 11% of the bank's stock, worth about $33.7 billion based on Tuesday's closing price of $39.28."
After dumping more than $7 billion in stock, Berkshire is still the largest shareholder with 11% of the bank's stock, or about 858 million shares. The position is back to 2018 levels.
Late last week, we offered some ideas on why Buffett might be selling. It would make a lot of sense for the billionaire's traders to reduce the BofA stake below the 10% threshold, eliminating the need for continuous reporting.
