Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway slashed its Bank of America stake and dumped bank stocks last quarter

• Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway cut its Bank of America stake and other bets last quarter.
• The investor's company exited two S&P 500 funds and only added one new stock, Constellation Brands.
• Buffett's conglomerate sold a net $127 billion of stocks in the first nine months of last year.

Warren Buffett and his deputies pared bets, exited wagers, and added only one new stock to their portfolio in the quarter ending December 31, signaling they once again struggled to find bargains in a buoyant market.

The famed investor's Berkshire Hathaway slashed its Bank of America stake to 680 million shares by December's close, down from more than 1 billion six months earlier, a regulatory filing revealed Friday.

As a result, Berkshire's ownership percentage dropped from over 13% to below 9%, and the value of what had long been its second-largest holding after Apple tumbled from about $41 billion to under $30 billion.

Buffett and his two investment managers, Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, cut other banking stocks too. They sold 74% of their Citigroup stake, 18% of their Capital One holding, and 54% of their Nu Holdings position. In addition, they trimmed names such as Charter Communications, Louisiana-Pacific, and T-Mobile US.

The Berkshire trio exited Ulta Beauty despite only establishing the position in the second quarter of last year. They also dumped SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust and Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, two exchange-traded funds that track the benchmark US stock index, after buying into them a few years earlier.

On the other hand, Buffett and Co. established a $1.2 billion stake in Constellation Brands, the maker of Corona and Modelo beer, and other alcoholic drinks.

They also ramped up their Domino's Pizza wager by 86% and their Pool Corp. stake by 48% after opening both positions in the preceding quarter. Moreover, they topped up holdings such as Occidental Petroleum, Verisign, and SiriusXM.

Despite the slew of cuts, the total value of Berkshire's US stock portfolio inched up to $267 billion as several positions gained value. The company is set to provide more insights for investors later this month when it publishes its annual report along with Buffett's signature shareholder letter.

Berkshire's portfolio update suggests little has changed from previous quarters. Buffett's company sold $133 billion of stocks in the first nine months of 2024 while buying less than $6 billion worth.

It also spent less than $3 billion on share buybacks in the period, compared to nearly $70 billion over the previous four years. The combination of stock sales and fewer repurchases helped to nearly double the size of Berkshire's cash pile from $168 billion to north of $300 billion for the first time.

Buffett is known for plowing billions of dollars into public companies such as Apple, and acquiring massive businesses such as Pilot Travel Centers.

He's repeatedly said that high company valuations have made it harder to find compelling deals, and he's grown more comfortable keeping large amounts of cash out of the stock market. Higher interest rates have also made holding Treasurys more lucrative for Berkshire.

Berkshire's Class B stock closed Friday at just under $480, up about 6% this year and almost 18% over the past 12 months.