Buffett's Berkshire cuts stake in BofA to below 10%

(Reuters) - Billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa ) unloaded more Bank of America stock this week that takes its stake in the U.S. banking giant below 10%.

Berkshire sold 9.5 million shares worth $382.4 million for this week, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requires shareholders that own more than 10% of a company to disclose stock purchases and sales within two business days.

Now investors at Bank of America must likely wait for Berkshire's quarterly financial reports or quarterly stock holdings disclosures to learn if the Omaha, Nebraska-based company sold more.

It started trimming the stake in mid-July when it sold about 33.9 million shares for around $1.48 billion. Till then, the investment giant had netted more than $10 billion.

BofA, however, is not the only stock that Buffett has dumped recently. Earlier this year, Berkshire halved its stake in technology behemoth Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL ).

At Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting in May, Buffett said selling made sense as the federal tax rate on capital gains could grow depending on who wins the U.S. presidential election.



Buffett, one of the world's most revered investors, first invested in Bank of America back in 2011 when he purchased $5 billion worth of its preferred stock.

The bank will report results next week, along with peer Citigroup, with investors keeping a close eye on the potential impact from higher deposit costs and tepid loan demand.

Source: Investing.com