Berkshire Hathaway Dumps Telecom & Slashes $9.2B Apple Stake – What Warren Knows That You Don’t

Buffett's empire makes bold moves as markets wobble

Telecom exit signals sector skepticism while Apple trim raises eyebrows

Wall Street scrambles to decode the Oracle's $9.2 billion vote of no confidence

Meanwhile, crypto traders shrug – 'this is why we HODL'

Berkshire exits telecom and cuts Apple holding by $9.2B

One of the biggest moves was a sharp cut to Apple. Berkshire dumped 20 million shares, shaving $9.2 billion off the position’s value. That still leaves Apple as the portfolio’s biggest piece, but the trim is real. There’s no sugarcoating it. It’s a cut.

Next up, Bank of America. Berkshire sold 26 million shares, taking its stake down to roughly 8%. This is one of Warren’s longest-standing bets in the finance industry, so reducing it like this screams caution.

Then came the complete exit from T-Mobile US. Berkshire pulled every cent out of its $1 billion telecom investment. Done. Out. No leftovers. This isn’t shocking to people who follow Warren closely. He’s never been super into telecom. But killing the position entirely this quarter shows the skepticism never really went away.

While Warren was exiting those positions, he also made some new bets. The filing shows Berkshire buying into Lennar, a major U.S. homebuilder.

The housing market is a wreck right now; mortgage rates are sky high, affordability is garbage, and Trump’s WHITE House has made the market even tougher for first-time buyers. But Berkshire still bought in. It’s unclear how deep the position is just yet, but it’s there, and it came at a time when the sector is still dealing with major obstacles.

$1.6B UnitedHealth bet lands during Justice probe

The biggest surprise in the filing? Berkshire went straight into UnitedHealth Group, buying over 5 million shares worth about $1.6 billion. That MOVE hit the market like a flash grenade. Why? Because UnitedHealth is not doing great.

The company’s been under federal investigation over how it handles Medicare billing. Its CEO, Andrew Witty, resigned in May, and just a month before this investment, UnitedHealth had to yank its annual earnings forecast, replacing it with a new one that missed Wall Street’s expectations.

This was not a low-risk buy. Shares had already been down nearly 50% for the year before Berkshire’s announcement that made UnitedHealth’s stock shoot up by 9.6% after hours, eventually ending the day up 12%, its biggest daily gain since March 2020.

That bounce helped push the Dow Jones to an all-time intraday high the same day. George Hill, a healthcare analyst at Deutsche Bank, told clients the investment could act like a short-term floor for the entire managed care sector. He said:

“Given Berkshire’s investment track record, it could serve as a near-term bottom and rallying point for other investors that the space is SAFE to invest in again.”

Despite all that, UnitedHealth is still under the Justice Department’s microscope, still facing backlash over rising healthcare costs, and still trying to earn back trust after a year of missed targets and executive chaos. Yet Berkshire made the buy. But that’s just Warren, unpredictable as ever.

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