As indicated by the earnings report, "Oracle of Omaha" Warren Buffett significantly reduced his major tech bet on Apple ( Apple Inc.(AAPL.US) ) in the second quarter, as recent regulatory filings revealed. Additionally, Berkshire Hathaway, led by Buffett, fully exited its position in cloud computing star Snowflake ( Snowflake(SNOW.US) ), a rare IPO investment from nearly four years ago, while increasing stakes in Occidental Petroleum ( Occidental Petroleum Corporation(OXY.US) ), a stock it had repeatedly bought over the past two months.

On August 14th, Berkshire Hathaway submitted its 13F filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). According to the quarterly portfolio changes, Apple ( Apple Inc.(AAPL.US) ) saw the most significant reduction, with Berkshire unloading more than 389 million shares valued at approximately $82 billion. This represented a 49.3% decrease in Berkshire's holdings from the first quarter, dropping Apple’s portfolio share by over 10 percentage points to 30.52%.

These figures align with the data released by Berkshire at the beginning of August. Following the earnings report,  we indicated that Berkshire's Apple holdings had been halved, dropping from 789 million shares in the first quarter to about 400 million shares in the second quarter, nearly a 50% decrease. This points to an accelerated reduction in Apple holdings this year, with a 13% decrease already occurring in the first quarter.

Buffett hinted at the Berkshire Annual Meeting in May that tax considerations influenced the decision to reduce Apple holdings. He suggested that if the U.S. government were to offset its growing fiscal deficit by increasing capital gains taxes, a "modest sale of Apple" this year would benefit Berkshire shareholders in the long term.

Snowflake ( Snowflake(SNOW.US) ) was the second largest reduction in Berkshire's portfolio during the second quarter, with Berkshire selling off the entire 6.12 million shares held at the end of the first quarter, valued at around $840 million. Despite this, Snowflake represented only 0.03% of Berkshire's portfolio.

Chevron ( Chevron Corporation(CVX.US) ) emerged as the third-largest stock divestiture by value for Berkshire Hathaway in the second quarter, with the holding company reducing its stake by approximately 4.37 million shares, equivalent to around $680 million. This marked a 3.55% decrease from its previous holdings, exceeding the first-quarter reduction of 3.11 million shares.

Capital One Financial ( Capital One Financial Corporation(COF.US) ) ranked as the fourth-largest divestiture by value, with Berkshire cutting its holdings by 2.65 million shares, valued at approximately $367 million. This represents a significant reduction of around 21.3% from the previous quarter. T-Mobile US (TMUS.US) was the fifth-largest divestiture, with Berkshire shedding 570,000 shares valued at around $100 million, a 10.9% decrease from the prior quarter.

On the acquisition side, Occidental Petroleum ( Occidental Petroleum Corporation(OXY.US) ) was the top stock Berkshire Hathaway increased its holdings in during the second quarter, by value. The firm added 7.26 million shares worth $458 million, representing a 2.9% increase in shares from the previous quarter. This was nearly a 70% jump in the number of shares acquired compared to the 4.3 million shares bought in the first quarter. As previously reported by Wall Street Insights, Berkshire Hathaway notably added about 7.3 million Occidental Petroleum shares over nine trading days through June 17, buying at around $60 per share and investing over $400 million in total.

In the second quarter, the second-largest stock addition by Berkshire Hathaway, following Occidental Petroleum, was Chubb Limited (  Chubb Limited(CB.US) ). The investment firm increased its holdings by nearly 1.11 million shares, valued at approximately $283 million, representing a growth of about 4.3% in its stake. Chubb was a new addition to Berkshire's portfolio in the first quarter.

The fourth-largest increase was in the satellite radio company Sirius XM ( Sirius XM Holdings, Inc.(SIRI.US) ), where Berkshire added approximately 96.2 million shares, worth around $272 million, marking a substantial 262.2% increase in its holdings. The fifth-largest addition was a newcomer to Berkshire's portfolio—the beauty company Ulta Beauty ( Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance, Inc.(ULTA.US) ). During the second quarter, Berkshire initiated a position in Ulta Beauty with 690,000 shares, valued at around $266 million.

In addition to Ulta Beauty, Berkshire Hathaway ventured into the defense sector in the second quarter by initiating a position in Heico Corporation-A ( HEICO Corporation Class A(HEI.A.US) ), acquiring 1.04 million shares.

Aside from divesting from Snowflake, Berkshire also fully exited its position in Paramount Global-B ( Premara Financial, Inc.(PARA.US) ) during the second quarter, selling off 7.53 million shares.

As of the end of the second quarter, Apple remained the largest holding in Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio. The rankings of the other top ten holdings were unchanged from the first quarter. These holdings include Bank of America ( Bank of America Corporation(BAC.US) ), American Express ( American Express Company(AXP.US) ), Coca-Cola ( Coca-Cola Company(KO.US) , Chevron ( Chevron Corporation(CVX.US) ), Occidental Petroleum ( Occidental Petroleum Corporation(OXY.US) ), Kraft Heinz ( Kraft Heinz Company(KHC.US) ), Moody’s ( Moody's Corporation(MCO.US) ), Chubb Limited ( Chubb Limited(CB.US) ), and DaVita ( DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc.(DVA.US) ).

As of the end of the second quarter, the total market value of Berkshire Hathaway's holdings decreased from $332 billion to $280 billion. Due to net stock sales amounting to $75.5 billion during the quarter, Berkshire's cash holdings surged to a record $276.9 billion, marking a significant 46.5% increase from $189 billion in the first quarter. Notably, Berkshire has been a net seller of stocks for seven consecutive quarters.