NEW YORK/BANGALORE, Feb 14 (Portal) – Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) reduced its stake in Taiwanese contract chipmaker TSMC (2330.TW) and some banks in the fourth quarter, while boosting its holdings in Apple Inc (AAPL.O).
Berkshire reduced its position in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) by 86.2% to 8.29 million sponsored American depository shares, according to a regulatory filing.
The announcement comes about three months after Berkshire revealed it bought more than $4.1 billion worth of TSMC stock, which sent its shares skyrocketing.
TSMC depositary receipts fell 4% in after-hours trading in the US.
Depositary shares of TSMC, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment, are up almost 32% this year to close at $97.96 on Tuesday.
“Berkshire made a small profit on TSMC. It wasn’t a huge win for Berkshire,” said Cathy Seifert, an analyst at CFRA Research. According to their calculations, Berkshire bought it for about $68.5 and sold it for $74.5.
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But the world’s largest contract chip maker said last month that first-quarter revenue is likely to fall 5% as it weathers a global downturn in the chip industry amid slowing consumer demand for electronics. TSMC executives have said they do not expect market conditions to improve until the second half of the year.
In addition to TSMC, Buffett also sold 91.4% of his stake in US Bancorp (USB.N) to 6.7 million shares and shrank his stake in BNY Mellon by about 60% to 25.1 million shares. Both cuts totaled nearly $5.5 billion at current prices.
Buffett’s conglomerate also owns stakes in Citigroup Inc (CN), Bank of America (BAC.N), and Jefferies (JEF.N).
Berkshire trimmed some positions in its portfolio of US public companies, including Chevron (CVX.N), Activision Blizzard (ATVI.O), maker of the video game Call of Duty, and Kroger (KR.N).
Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) is scrambling to complete its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. On February 21, Microsoft will defend the deal before representatives of the European Union and national antitrust authorities at a closed hearing.
Among Berkshire’s few additions is Apple, which Buffett sees more as a consumer goods company. Berkshire bought another 20.8 million Apple shares worth $3.2 billion, increasing its stake to 5.8%, according to the filing.
Apple’s shares are up almost 18% this year.
Berkshire also announced a new $84 million investment in building materials company Louisiana-Pacific Corp (LPX.N).
Reporting by Carolina Mandl in New York and Sittrarasu S in Bangalore, editing by Jonathan Oatis, Leslie Adler and Lincoln Feast.
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