Warren Buffett continues to sell some holdings in Bank of America (BAC), a giant lender bolstered by the Oracle of Omaha in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A) (BRK-B) disclosed late Tuesday that it trimmed its stake by another 24.6 million shares, generating $982 million.
Since mid July Berkshire has sold BofA stock in five of the past six weeks, unloading a total of 129 million shares and earning $5.4 billion on those sales.
Bank of America’s stock has fallen by more than 9% during Buffett’s selling spree. It is still up roughly 18% so far this year, trailing larger gains by rivals Goldman Sachs (GS), JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Citigroup (C).
The market value of Berkshire Hathaway surpassed $1 trillion on Wednesday as its stock rose slightly. BofA’s stock was also up slightly.
Berkshire has not yet said anything about the motivation for selling some of its Bank of America stock. And it remains the bank’s largest stockholder, with over 900 million shares worth more than $35 billion.
The recent moves are notable because of Buffett’s long history with Bank of America. He injected $5 billion into Bank of America in 2011 as the lender struggled to overcome the wreckage of a subprime housing meltdown that caused the 2008-2009 financial crisis.
It wasn’t solely a bet on Bank of America’s recovery, but also in new leadership of CEO Brian Moynihan, who took over the top job in 2009.
The endorsement from Buffett certainly helped restore some market confidence in the bank. Its stock has since climbed nearly 400%.
Buffett stuck with Bank of America even as he began unloading stakes in other big lenders.
Between 2018 and 2022 he exited giant stakes of JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Wells Fargo (WFC), and Goldman Sachs (GS), some just months before the banking system upheaval that began in mid March of 2023.
Buffett began unloading the Wells position after a series of scandals rocked the bank, including revelations that employees pressured by sales goals opened millions of accounts that customers didn’t want and charged fees that weren’t necessary.
“We’re very cautious… about ownership of banks and we do remain with one bank… I like Bank of America and I like the management,” Buffett said at Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting in May 2023.
By June of this year, Bank of America accounted for 15% of Berkshire’s portfolio as the firm slashed its stake in Apple (AAPL).
Now it is the company’s third-biggest position behind Apple and American Express (AXP).
David Hollerith is a senior reporter for Yahoo Finance covering banking, crypto, and other areas in finance.
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