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The Berkshire Hathaway von Warren Buffett has classified its missions at some of the largest banks in the United States in the last three months of 2024 when the billionaire investor released the Bank of America and the Citigroup shares of the Bank of America and Citigroup shares.
The extensive conglomerate sold almost three quarters of its position in Citigroup and sold 40.6 million stocks worth more than $ 2.4 billion.
Berkshire In addition, Bofa shares continued to sell an investment that goes back to the financial crisis when Buffett provided a ballast for one of the country’s largest lenders.
Berkshire, who had a 13 percent participation in the bank and had been the bank’s largest shareholder for years, was waiting for Bofa and the wider US financial system to survive the regional banking crisis before it was lowered. From last July, however, it started to reduce its share aggressively and sometimes to delete shares on the open market in successive trading sessions.
The disclosure on Friday showed that Berkshire had reduced a further 95 million stocks since mid -October when his possession of ownership fell below a message threshold of 10 percent. The sales in the following weeks reduced Berkshires participation in Bofa to around 8.9 percent.
The group based in Omaha lowered its position in Capital One, another large US bank, almost a fifth and sold 1.7 million stocks from the credit card specialist.
Buffett spent most of the Mammut stock portfolio of Berkshire 2024 when he broke out or went out positions. This included one of his most profitable business: his investment in Apple.
Registration on Friday showed that Buffett and his two MEPs had found only a few rewarding bets on the US shares and preferred the returns for US finance ministries who strengthened Berkshire’s profitability.
The company invested in just one new share in the fourth quarter and bought stocks from Modelo Beermaker Constellation brands worth 1.2 billion USD.
However, it was unclear whether the investment in the constellation of Buffett or one of his two deputies had been made. Analysts and investors generally consider investments of 1 billion USD or less than bets made by Todd Combs or Ted Weschller, the two men who manage part of the company’s 272 billion stock portfolio.
The exit from Buffett from bank shares comes as soon as many investors in this sector become more optimistic than for years, partly by promise by President Donald Trump to reduce the regulation of the industry.
The stocks of the country’s largest banks rose on average by around 40 percent last year, measured by the KBW Bank Index.
Buffett achieved a big bet at Bofa for the first time in 2011 with an unsolicited investment of $ 5 billion, when it was still major losses through two poorly advised acquisitions and the 40 billion dollar purchase of mortgage makers, which were done to fail, and the rescue of Merrill Lynch.
The investment was a great vote of trust for the new Bofa managing director Brian Moynihan, whose performance did not have to convince investors that he could turn the bank over. “There were many financial cowboys in banking,” said Buffett in 2022. In his opinion, Moynihan was one of the good ones.
Bofa’s decision to invest in longer government bonds to strengthen the result during the pandemic than the Federal Reserve in 2022 and 2023 aggressively raised.
Bofa left the investment with hundreds of billions of dollars with low securities, many of which only mature in 2026 or later. Bofa returns can no longer be invested in systems with higher round factors recently.
For Citi, Berkshires did not generate the same positive sensation in 2022 as for Bofa in 2022.
The head of Citi, Jane Fraser, presented a massive restructuring at the end of 2023 after years of delayed competitors. At the beginning of last year, Fraser informed the bank’s top managers that Buffett forwarded his enthusiasm for her plan.
Citi made some progress in reducing costs in 2024, whereby the operating costs have dropped by 4 percent compared to the previous year, including reducing expenses for the remuneration and services of employees by 2 percent.
The bank’s return for tangible common equity – a profitability metric – was 7 percent in 2024, compared to 4.9 percent in 2023, but lower than its main colleagues. Citi had targeted 11-12 percent by the end of 2026, but reduced this area to 10-11 percent in January.
