© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett arrives to attend the Allen and Co. Sun Valley annual media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, U.S., July 5, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
By Carolina Mandl and Sittrarasu S.
NEW YORK/BANGALORE (Reuters) – Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:) Inc cut its stake in Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC as well as some banks in the fourth quarter, while bolstering its stakes in Apple Inc.
Berkshire cut its position in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) by 86.2% to 8.29 million sponsored US depositary shares, according to a regulatory filing.
The announcement comes about three months after Berkshire revealed that it bought more than $4.1 billion worth of TSMC shares, sending its shares soaring.
TSMC depository receipts fell 4% in the US after business hours.
Deposit shares in TSMC, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, are up nearly 32% this year, closing at $97.96 on Tuesday.
“Berkshire made a small profit on TSMC. It wasn’t a big, big win for Berkshire,” said Cathy Seifert, an analyst at CFRA Research. By her calculations, Berkshire bought it for approximately $68.5 and sold it for $74.5.
But the world’s largest contract chipmaker said last month first-quarter revenue was likely to fall 5% as it faced a global recession in the chip industry due to declining demand. of electronic products by consumers. TSMC executives have said they don’t expect market conditions to improve until the second half of the year.
In addition to TSMC, Buffett also sold 91.4% of his shares in US Bancorp (NYSE:), for 6.7 million shares, and reduced his stake in BNY Mellon (NYSE:) by approximately 60%, to 25.1 million shares. Both cuts totaled nearly $5.5 billion at current prices.
Buffett’s conglomerate also has shares in Citigroup Inc (NYSE:), Bank of America (NYSE:) and Jefferies.
Berkshire trimmed some positions in its portfolio of publicly traded US companies, including Chevron (NYSE:), Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:), creator of the “Call of Duty” video game, and Kroger (NYSE:).
microsoft corporation (NASDAQ:) is making efforts to complete the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. On February 21, Microsoft will defend the deal before European Union and national antitrust officials in a closed-door hearing.
Among Berkshire’s few additions is Apple, which Buffett sees more as a consumer products company. Berkshire bought another 20.8 million shares of Apple (NASDAQ:) worth $3.2 billion, bringing its stake to 5.8%, according to the filing.
Apple shares are up nearly 18% this year.
Berkshire also disclosed a new $84 million stake in the building materials company. Louisiana-Pacific (NYSE:) Corp.