Berkshire unloads more Apple shares

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is now sitting on a record $325.2Bn of cash as of the end of the third quarter.

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Of note, Berkshire continued to trim its stake in Apple. The conglomerate now owns $69.9Bn of Apple’s stock, down 25% from $84.2Bn in the second quarter. While that’s significant, it doesn’t necessarily mean Berkshire is fading Apple. Buffett said in May at Berkshire’s annual meeting that Apple was an “even better” business relative to two of its other holdings: American Express and Coca-Cola.

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Buffett is sitting on record amounts of cash because steep market prices have effectively limited his firm's number of attractive opportunities. He’s not alone—Goldman Sachs predicts a 3% return for the S&P 500 over the next decade, citing the cyclically adjusted earnings ratio (a common valuation metric) at 38 times or the 97th percentile.