Warren Buffett Just Hit the Sell Button for $4.1 Billion. Is the Oracle of Omaha Losing Faith in the Stock Market?

Last quarter, Warren Buffett hit the buy button to the tune of more than $521 million, accumulating shares of one of his top holdings. But he also unloaded a ton of stock last quarter, including 20 million shares of the biggest holding in Berkshire Hathaway's equity portfolio. In total, Buffett sold more than $4.1 billion of stock of this iconic American business in just 90 days.

Is the Oracle of Omaha losing faith in the stock market?

Buffett rapidly sold his top stock holding

In early 2016, Berkshire Hathaway purchased shares of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) for the first time. But it may not have been Buffett's idea. He is famous for avoiding tech stocks. Berkshire heavily underperformed the broader market during the dot-com bubble due to that, but once the bubble popped, Berkshire resumed its long-term outperformance.

Buffett's lack of appetite for tech stocks likely relates to his long-standing advice to other investors: Don't invest in businesses you don't understand. That's why the Apple position likely wasn't Buffett's idea. Instead, the choice to buy it is usually attributed to two of his investment managers at Berkshire: Todd Combs and Ted Weschler. What did those two like about Apple? Its ability to intertwine its hardware and software products into an ecosystem that consumers find difficult to quit.

"As network speed has gotten faster and faster, and with it the information that people can absorb on the network, things like photo applications, and apps, they create a stickier ecosystem," Weschler was recorded saying back in 2016. "Once you are fully invested in the App ecosystem and you have got your thousands of photographs up in the cloud and you are used to the keystrokes and functionality and where everything is, you become a sticky consumer."

From 2016 through 2018, Berkshire consistently added more Apple shares to its portfolio each quarter. In 2019 and 2020, it made a slew of sales, proving that Berkshire wouldn't hold the stock under every condition. But in 2022 and 2023, Berkshire turned into a buyer once again, albeit in a much smaller way than it had been previously.

In 2024, however, Berkshire began unloading shares at an alarming rate. Last year alone, Berkshire sold roughly 600 million shares of Apple, followed by a 20 million share sale in Q2 2025. Berkshire still owns about 280 million shares -- a position that comprises more than 24% of its publicly traded portfolio. But the message is clear: Berkshire isn't as big a fan of Apple stock as it used to be.

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Does Buffett think Apple stock is overpriced?

There are many reasons a company like Berkshire might begin to reduce a position like Apple. The most obvious is position weighting. At one point, Apple comprised more than 40% of the value of Berkshire's stock portfolio. For most managers, this is simply far too large a position for any single name. Trimming back a winning position that has left a portfolio unbalanced is normal portfolio management, not a clear-cut sign that the managers have lost faith in the stock.

There are other considerations, too. Buffett has publicly mentioned his belief that Washington will eventually raise corporate tax rates again. By selling his Apple stock now, Berkshire takes advantage of today's lower-than-average corporate tax rate.

Even with all of this taken into consideration, managers would likely not sell a stock as aggressively as Berkshire has sold Apple unless they viewed the potential upside as being far less than it was in the past. So while Apple may not be overvalued in the traditional sense, we can conclude that in the eyes of Buffett and his team, its potential for further gains may not be enough to justify that previously oversized position.

Individual investors should consider Berkshire's selling as a cautionary sign, but it doesn't mean they should rule out taking a position in Apple stock. After all, it is still Berkshire's biggest stock holding today.

Ryan Vanzo has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple and Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.