Loading ...Deception & Distraction
In a post yesterday, I suggested two names for Warren Buffett to consider buying shares in, should he get out of overpriced Apple. Apparently, he was selling 50% of his AAPL stake in the second quarter and hopefully a lot more since.
I think at his max position in Apple he had around one billion shares, clearly a huge position. However, since that was still below the 10% threshold, he only had to do the usual quarterly disclosures, as oppossed to the 10 day, or something like that, when you own 10% or more, like his Bank of America stake.
While everyone was watching and talking about his dumping of large chunks of BAC, he has been steadily getting out of overpriced APPL. I wouldn’t be surpised if he has sold most of it by the time the next report is due out. When he last reported on Apple holdings, while acknowledging selling about 10% of his stake, he went out of his way to talk up what a great company and stock it was. Selling at the same time talking it up. Distraction and deception, indeed.
Would one expect Warren to do anything else to talk it up while he sold to the suckers?
No, but in most of his other positions over the years, he usually kept pretty quiet about his purchases and sales and let people guess what he was doing after the fact based on the required filings. I would guess with Apple being such a large position and having to get out without triggering a major selloff, he decided to say one thing while doing the opposite like a few other CEO’s have also done from time to time. I would bet that with this info out today, he has probably dumped his whole position(or at least as much as he wanted to sell) into AAPL’s recent strength.