Warren Buffett added two new stocks in Q2 while selling Apple

Key points

• Berkshire Hathaway filed form 13F with the SEC, detailing Q2 portfolio moves.

• In addition to selling a big stake in Apple, Buffett made several other changes.

• The company added new positions in Ulta Beauty and HEICO.

Berkshire Hathaway’s 13F details portfolio moves the company and its CEO, Warren Buffett, made in the second quarter.

In a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) (NYSE: BRK.B) and its CEO Warren Buffett detailed the moves the conglomerate made to its $285 billion stock portfolio.

The biggest move was made public in the company’s second quarter earnings report, released earlier this month, as Berkshire Hathaway sold a massive stake in its largest holding, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL).

Buffett sold about $50 billion in Apple stock in Q2, reducing its position to about $84 billion in the iPhone maker’s stock. Apple is still the largest holding in Berkshire’s portfolio at 30%, but it is down from $174 billion, or 49% of the portfolio, at the end of 2023.

Buffett and Berkshire also cut back on Apple stock in Q1.  

But the new SEC filing, the 13F, analyzed by Whale Wisdom, details other changes made in Q2, including the addition of two new names — Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) and HEICO (NYSE: HEI).

What Buffett bought in Q2

Warren Buffett and his team established two new positions in the $285 billion Berkshire Hathaway portfolio in the second quarter. The larger stake was in Ulta Beauty, the national beauty retailer and salon. Buffett bought roughly 690,000 shares worth about $267 million in Ulta, representing just 0.10% of the total portfolio.

The other addition was HEICO, a company that manufactures and sells technology products to the aerospace, defense, and industrial sectors. The company bought approximately 1 million shares at a market value of $185 million, which accounts for a 0.07% overall stake in the portfolio.

The biggest add to the portfolio was in Occidental Petroleum (NYSE:OXY), the oil and gas producer. Buffett added 7.2 million shares of Occidental, boosting the total to 255 million shares. Occidental is now the sixth largest position in the portfolio, making up 5.8%, up from 4.8% the previous quarter.

Further, Berkshire bought another 1.1 million shares in Chubb, the insurance company. Berkshire now owns 27 million shares in Chubb at a value of $6.9 billion, making it the ninth largest position in the portfolio. It represents 2.5% of the portfolio, up from 2.0%.

Finally, Buffett added 4.5 million shares of Liberty Sirius XM Group C shares (NASDAQ:LSXMK), 2.4 million shares of Liberty SiriusXM Group A shares (NASDAQ:LSXMA), and 96 million shares Sirius XM Holdings (NASDAQ:SIRI). They make up 0.56%, 0.28%, and 0.14% of the portfolio, respectively.

What Buffett sold in Q2

Buffett sold a lot in Q2, and not just Apple, although that was by far the biggest chunk. Overall, the company shed 389 million Apple shares in the quarter, and it now makes up 30% of the overall portfolio, down from about 41% last quarter. Berkshire now owns exactly 400 million shares of Apple, worth just over $84 billion.  It remains the largest position in the portfolio.

The Oracle of Omaha also dumped 4.4 million shares of Chevron (NYSE: CVX), the fifth largest holding in the portfolio. Berkshire now owns about 118 million shares, valued at $18.5 billion. It makes up 6.7% of the portfolio.

Buffett also completely sold out of two stocks, Snowflake (NYSE: SNOW), an information technology firm, and media company Paramount Global (NASDAQ: PARA). He sold all 7.5 million shares in Paramount and 6.1 million shares in Snowflake. These two represent rare whiffs for Buffett, as both were added fairly recently, Paramount in 2022 and Snowflake in 2020.

Other sizable sells last quarter were Capital One Financial (NYSE: COF) and T-Mobile USA (NASDAQ: TMUS). Buffett sold 2.6 million shares of Capital One, reducing its stake to 0.49%, and 570 thousand shares of T-Mobile, dropping its stake to 0.30%.

In addition, Berkshire dropped more than 633 thousand shares in Louisiana-Pacific Corp. (NYSE: LPX), some 280 thousand shares in Liberty Live Group (NASDAQ: LLYVX) (NASDAQ: LLYVA), and approximately 802 thousand shares in Floor & Décor (NYSE: FND).

Record amount of cash

The overall size of the invested portfolio is just $285 billion, which sounds like a lot, but it is down from $331 billion at the end of the first quarter and $352 billion at the end of 2023.

Overall, there is roughly $277 billion sitting on the sidelines in cash, a record amount for the company.

Buffett has said previously that he is happy with the high 5% yields that Treasury bills and other cash products are producing, so he is in no hurry to invest good money after stocks that don’t meet his standards.