Berkshire Hathaway Sells $2.5 Billion of IBM and Buys $600 Million of Apple in Third Quarter of 2017

In its Form 13F filing released after the market closed today, Berkshire Hathaway reported that it sold approximately 30% of its stake in IBM (NYSE:IBM) for about $2.5 billion, and purchased an additional $600 million of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) during the third quarter of 2017.  The sale of 17 million shares of IBM were at an approximate price of $150 per share, which was below Berkshire’s average cost of $170 per share.

Berkshire also increased its positions in Monsanto (NYSE:MON) and Synchrony Financial (NYSE:SYF) by about $100 million each.

Berkshire also decreased its stake in Charter Communications (NASDAQ:CHTR) by about $300 million and Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) by about $175 million.

Berkshire’s five largest equity holdings as of September 30, 2017 were:

(1) Wells Fargo —           $25.6 billion

(2) Kraft Heinz —             $25.3 billion

(3) Apple   —                    $20.7 billion

(4) Coca Cola —              $18.0 billion

(5) Bank of America —    $17.2 billion