Berkshire reduces Bank of America stake to under 10%, no longer obligated to disclose frequently.
Berkshire Hathaway, owned by Warren Buffett, has decreased its ownership in Bank of America to under 10% during a selling frenzy that commenced in mid-July.
Buffett sold over 9.5 million shares in three transactions on Tuesday to Thursday, reducing his holdings to 775 million shares or a 9.987% stake.
No longer needs to report transactions involving the company's equity within two business days since the holding is now under the 10% key threshold.
Berkshire's equity holdings as of September will be disclosed in the next 13F filing in mid-November, but Buffett's next moves will not be revealed until then. Despite being the biggest institutional investor of Bank of America, Buffett's next moves remain a mystery.
Despite Berkshire's selling, Bank of America's shares have increased by approximately 1% in the past month. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan stated that the market is absorbing the stock, aided by the bank's own repurchasing.
In 2011, Buffett bought $5 billion of Bank of America preferred stock and warrants to boost confidence in the struggling lender during the subprime mortgage crisis. He converted the warrants to common stock in 2017, making Berkshire the largest shareholder in the bank. In 2018 and 2019, Buffett added 300 million more shares to his investment.
'Very cautious'
After Buffett sold off his longtime holdings in the banking industry, including JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and U.S. Bancorp, the recent BofA sales came. Last year, Buffett expressed a pessimistic outlook on the 2023 banking crisis.
"Buffett stated that the stickiness of deposits has been altered by 2008, and this change has affected everything. As a result, they are cautious when it comes to owning banks in such a situation."
During the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2023, bank failures eroded confidence in the system, exacerbated by poor messaging from regulators and politicians. Meanwhile, digitalization and fintech have made bank runs easier during crises.
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