Warren Buffett Sells Apple, Buys 2 Trillion KRW Worth of "This Stock"

Berkshire Discloses End-of-Q2 Holdings
Acquires 5 Million Shares of UnitedHealth

Berkshire Hathaway (hereafter "Berkshire"), led by Warren Buffett (94), known as the "Oracle of Omaha," has reduced its stake in Apple and instead purchased over 2 trillion KRW worth of shares in UnitedHealth, the largest health insurance company in the United States.

According to Berkshire's Form 13F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on the 14th (local time), the company acquired 5 million shares of UnitedHealth during the first and second quarters of this year. Based on UnitedHealth's share price at the end of the reporting period, which was the end of June, this amounts to approximately $1.6 billion (about 2.2 trillion KRW), making it the 18th largest holding in Berkshire's overall portfolio.

Warren Buffett, Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway

UnitedHealth's stock price has halved this year due to deteriorating performance resulting from increased medical expenses and the impact of investigations by U.S. judicial authorities.

In the second quarter, Berkshire sold 20 million shares of Apple. Berkshire had been purchasing large amounts of Apple stock since 2016, but began significantly reducing its stake last year. Apple's share of Berkshire's overall portfolio decreased from 25.76% in the first quarter to 22.31% in the second quarter, but it remains the largest holding.

In March, Berkshire temporarily withheld the names of certain newly acquired stocks in its holdings disclosure. This led to heightened attention from the investment industry ahead of the latest filing.

In addition to Berkshire, Scion Asset Management, led by Michael Burry-the real-life model for the film "The Big Short"-also acquired call options on 350,000 shares of UnitedHealth and purchased 20,000 common shares. Following the disclosure of these institutional purchases, UnitedHealth's stock price surged by more than 13% in after-hours trading.

Meanwhile, according to the holdings data released on the same day, Berkshire also acquired stakes in companies such as steelmaker Nucor, security firm Allegion, and homebuilders D.R. Horton and Lennar, in addition to UnitedHealth.