Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has sold over $10 billion worth of Bank of America stock in the past three months. The company’s stake in the bank is now below 10%. Berkshire announced on Thursday that it had trimmed its stake by another 9.5 million shares.
This earned the company about $382 million between Tuesday and Thursday. Buffett has not said why Berkshire is selling the stock. But the company is still the bank’s largest shareholder.
It owns over 775 million shares worth around $31 billion. Bank of America’s stock price has fallen more than 9% since Buffett started selling. But it is still up over 18% for the year.
Berkshire trims Bank of America holdings
This is behind rivals like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup. The bank will report its third-quarter results on Tuesday morning.
Analysts expect profits to be lower than a year ago and the previous quarter. Buffett has a long history with Bank of America. He invested $5 billion in the bank in 2011 when it was struggling after the financial crisis.
This was a bet on the bank’s recovery and its CEO Brian Moynihan. “We’re buying the stock, a portion of the stock, and so life will go on,” Moynihan said last month. “But he’s been a great investor for our company and stabilized our company when we needed it at the time.”
Bank of America is now Berkshire’s third-biggest stock holding.
It is behind Apple and American Express.