Warren Buffett’s Berkshire has lagged the S&P 500 by the widest margin so far this year.

(This is the Warren Buffett Watch newsletter, news and analysis about Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway. Sign up here to receive it in your inbox every Friday night.)

Berkshire Hathaway B stock The stock is up 7.2% from its recent closing low of $459.11 on August 4th.

Following Warren Buffett’s surprise announcement in early May that he would step down as CEO at the end of the year, the stock was down nearly 15% at the time.

This brings BRKB’s year-to-date profit to 8.6%. ( A shares (8.5% increase)

appleThe index, which makes up 6.35% of the S&P index, also closed at an all-time high today.

At $262.82 per share, the stock is up more than 50% since Berkshire began selling the stock in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Since then, Berkshire has reduced its holdings from approximately 916 million shares as of September 30, 2023 to 280 million shares as of June 30.

That’s a 69% decline, but it’s still the largest holding in any stock portfolio.

There may have been more selling (or maybe buying) in the third quarter of this year. We expect to receive new stock numbers from Berkshire in mid-November.

So far, the decision to sell doesn’t look very good.

If Berkshire had owned all of its shares, its stock would have been valued at $241 billion (assuming no movement in the third quarter) instead of the current $74 billion, a difference of $167 billion.

Barron’s estimates that Berkshire’s average selling price would be about $185 per share, resulting in pre-tax profits of about $96 billion and “retention” of about $50 billion.

And according to Mr. Barron’s calculations, Berkshire’s actual profits were reduced by about $20 billion in taxes.

Buffett hasn’t said much about why he drastically reduced his stake in Apple stock.

His only public explanation was in response to shareholder questions at last year’s annual general meeting.

Buffett predicted that Apple would remain Berkshire’s largest stock position into the future, calling it an even better business than his long-time holdings, American Express and American Express. coca cola.

But he also expected capital gains tax rates to trend upward, so he thought shareholders wouldn’t mind paying a lower tax rate for what he called a “small” Apple sale at the time, rather than paying a higher rate later.

At the time, Berkshire had only reduced its stake by about 14%.

Video clips and transcripts can be found in “Archive Highlights” below.

Jazzwear, a Berkshire Hathaway company known for its Squishmallows, announced two partnerships this week.

We will be the “World Official Plush Toy Licensee” for next year’s FIFA World Cup.

The product line, which includes the “long-awaited official mascot” of the Soccer (US)/Football (UK) tournament, is expected to launch in June next year.

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Buffett: The prospect of higher tax rates in the future makes selling Apple shares more attractive now (2024)

Warren Buffett said he expects capital gains tax rates to rise even higher in the future as the United States grapples with its budget deficit. Berkshire is generally comfortable paying taxes, but shareholders may appreciate selling some of their Apple stock at the current 21% interest rate before the tax burden becomes even more severe.

Becky Quick: “Has your or your investment manager’s view of Apple’s business economics or its attractiveness as an investment changed since Berkshire first invested in 2016?”

Warren Buffett: No, I would do that, but I sold the stock. And I think it’s very likely that at the end of the year, Apple will be the largest common stock that we own.

Well…one thing that might surprise you is that we, almost everyone I know, are far more careful about not paying taxes than I thought they were.

We don’t mind paying taxes at Berkshire. And we pay a 21% federal tax rate on the profits we make from Apple.

And not too long ago, that percentage was 35 percent, and in the past, when I was running it, it was 52 percent.

A portion of the revenue from the business we do is owned by the government and is owned by the federal government. They don’t own the assets, but they own a portion of the proceeds.

And you can change that percentage at any time. And the percentage they currently decree is 21 percent.

And I think with current fiscal policy, something has to give. And I think it’s very likely that taxes will go up.

And if the government wants to take away a bigger share of your or my income or Berkshire’s income, they can do that.

And someday they may decide that they don’t want the budget deficit to be this big, and they don’t want to cut spending so much because it has important consequences. And they may decide that they will receive a larger percentage of the money we earn. And we pay for it.

And we always want Berkshire to pay a lot of federal income tax. We believe it is appropriate for us to be a country that is equally generous towards businesses – owners…

I don’t care one bit about writing that check.

And I sincerely hope that it doesn’t bother you that we do that, considering all that America has done for all of you.

And if I do it at 21% this year and then an even higher percentage after that, I don’t think the fact that we sold Apple a little bit this year actually bothers me.

Berkshire’s top public holdings by market value in the U.S., Japan, and Hong Kong, based on today’s closing prices.

Asset holdings are as of June 30, 2025, as reported in Berkshire Hathaway’s report filed with the 13th Floor on August 14, 2025. However, the following are excluded.

A complete list of holdings and current market value is available on CNBC.com’s Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio Tracker.

It turns out that the numbers in the pct.portfolio have been wrong for weeks due to a formula error in the spreadsheet. This issue has now been fixed.

If you have any questions or comments about the newsletter, please send them to alex.crippen@nbcuni.com. (Sorry, we do not forward questions or comments to Mr. Buffett himself.)

If you haven’t subscribed to this newsletter yet, you can sign up here.

I also highly recommend Buffett’s annual letter to shareholders. It’s collected here on Berkshire’s website.

— Alex Crippen, Warren Buffett Watch Editor