In a recent development, Berkshire Hathaway, led by Warren Buffett, has reduced its stake in U.S. Bancorp to below 10%, marking an end to a $10 billion sell-off that the company undertook over the past three months.
Between August 8 and 10, Berkshire further diminished its holdings by selling 9.5 million shares, generating approximately $382 million in profit from these transactions.
With this latest round of sell-offs, Berkshire’s ownership in U.S. Bancorp has fallen to 9.99%. This drop below the 10% threshold is significant, as it exempts the firm from the obligation to update its ownership reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under federal securities laws.
Unless Buffett or Berkshire chooses to publicly clarify their stance on U.S. Bancorp, investors will have to wait until the next 13F filing to get insights into any changes in their holdings.
As of now, neither Buffett nor Berkshire has disclosed the reasons behind the sell-off. However, Berkshire remains the largest shareholder in the bank, holding more than 775 million shares valued at approximately $31 billion.
Berkshire began selling its U.S. Bancorp shares three months ago, offloading a total of 257 million shares over the past 13 weeks, which resulted in a profit of $9.98 billion.
Since Buffett started selling U.S. Bancorp stocks, the bank’s share price has declined by over 9%. Despite this, U.S. Bancorp’s stock has still increased by more than 18% year-to-date, though it lags behind competitors like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup.
U.S. Bancorp is set to announce its third-quarter earnings ahead of the market open on the 15th, with analysts projecting a drop in earnings compared to both last year and the previous quarter.
As of June this year, U.S. Bancorp accounted for 15% of Berkshire’s investment portfolio, ranking third behind Apple and American Express.
