Berkshire Hathaway
continued its recent sales of
HPInc.
on Tuesday, unloading 3.1 million shares for $80 million and dropping its stake in the maker of printers and personal computers to just below 10%.
The sale was disclosed in a form 4 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission late Thursday.
Berkshire Hathaway (Ticker BRK/B) now holds 97.9 million shares of HP (HPQ), a 9.9% stake valued at $2.6 billion based on HP’s closing price Thursday. The shares were up 0.7% to $26.23 in the session. Berkshire sold the stock at an average price of $26.20.
Berkshire has needed to disclose within two business days its recent sales of HP stock because it held over 10% of the company. With the sale Tuesday, Berkshire fell just below 10% and will no longer need to disclose any purchases or sales of HP stock so promptly.
Investors may not get a fresh read on Berkshire’s HP holdings until mid February when the company reports its equity investments as of Dec. 31, 2023.
With Berkshire having cut its stake in HP by nearly 20% in the past month, the question is whether Berkshire CEO Warren Buffett, who oversees Berkshire’s $375 billion equity portfolio, will continue to reduce the HP holding as he has done with
U.S. Bancorp
(USB) and
Bank of New York Mellon
(BK) in the past year.
Berkshire accumulated the HP stake in early 2022 and the sales in the past month were the first since the company finished buying the stock in April 2022. Berkshire held about 120 million shares before the recent sales began.
Berkshire has been more active in buying and selling stocks in its equity portfolio in recent years than in the past.
Berkshire likely is taking a loss on the HP sale, having purchased the HP stake in the low $30s, Barron’s estimates.
Write to Andrew Bary at [email protected]
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