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Buffett's portfolio adjustments continue.

Overall, the cash reserves of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway have been increasing, and it is expected that by the end of the second quarter, its total cash reserves will exceed US$200 billion.

In fact, starting from the fourth quarter of last year, US technology stocks, led by Nvidia, started a relatively large upward cycle, but also accumulated certain risks.

Therefore, starting from the fourth quarter of last year, Buffett began to reduce his holdings in Apple; in the first quarter of this year, he reduced his holdings by a large margin, reducing his holdings by about 116 million shares of Apple stock. According to the average price in the first quarter, Buffett cashed out more than $20 billion. But it is worth noting that after Buffett reduced his holdings, Apple's stock price did not fall, but instead hit a record high.

In other words, Buffett's reduction of holdings only released some signals, and it does not completely mean that the US technology stock market has ended. In addition, Buffett's reduction of holdings is limited to the technology and consumer sectors, and the banking sector is also a key area for Buffett's reduction of holdings.

According to a public document, between July 17 and 19, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sold about 34 million shares of Bank of America, cashing in a total of about US$1.48 billion. The sales price ranged from US$43.13 to US$44.07.

It is reported that this is the first time Buffett has reduced his holdings in Bank of America since the third quarter of 2020.

After the completion of this share reduction, Berkshire Hathaway still holds approximately 999 million shares of Bank of America, with a market value of over US$42.5 billion, making it Berkshire's second largest holding.

Judging from Buffett's actions, his defensiveness has been apparent since the fourth quarter of last year. According to Berkshire's recent holdings at the end of the first quarter, as of March 31, Berkshire held 789 million shares of Apple, currently worth about $155 billion, accounting for about 40% of Berkshire's stock portfolio.

That is to say, although Apple is still its largest holding, the overall holding ratio has dropped by about 10%. For Berkshire, this is actually a relatively large holding change.

In addition, in the first quarter, Buffett also reduced his holdings in Chevron and Paramount Global; sold about 23 million shares of HP stock, completely clearing out his HP shares. At the same time, Buffett continued to increase his holdings in Occidental Petroleum and spent a lot of money to buy Chubb Insurance. This move was also interpreted by the outside world as a certain bubble in the US stock market.

Of course, if we are familiar with Buffett's holdings, we will find that Buffett's buying and selling are not always correct, but in the general direction, Buffett has almost no mistakes. In addition, in addition to reducing his holdings in Apple and Bank of America, Buffett continues to reduce his holdings in BYD.

According to relevant documents of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Berkshire Hathaway, owned by Buffett, reduced its holdings of BYD H shares by 2.0175 million shares on June 19, with an average transaction price of HK$234.57 per share. After the reduction, Berkshire Hathaway's holding ratio dropped from 6.18% to 5.99%.

An industry analyst once analyzed that Buffett may be planning to reduce his holdings in BYD to the point of clearing out all of his shares. The analyst believes that once the shareholding ratio drops to 5%, Buffett's reduction will accelerate, because shareholders holding less than 5% of the shares do not need to disclose the reduction.

In addition to some changes in Berkshire's holdings, Buffett also made arrangements for his funeral some time ago. Previously, he said in an interview with the media that after his death, almost all of his remaining wealth would be handed over to a new charitable trust fund managed by his daughter and two sons.

Regarding the distribution of wealth, he has said that he will donate more than 99% of his net wealth to charity. Buffett has made it clear that after his death, donations to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will stop.

Kanjian Finance believes that from the current series of actions taken by Buffett, Buffett has accelerated the relevant layout, trying to help his successor eliminate the risks of succession, and significantly increasing the company's cash flow is also to deal with possible problems in the future. At present, Berkshire's cash reserves exceed 200 billion US dollars, which is a high margin of error for the successor. Therefore, from this perspective, we can also understand Buffett's current behavior.