Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway’s Apple stock selloff will cost $15 billion in U.S. taxes
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway halved its stake in Apple in the second quarter, a selloff that could cost the Omaha-based conglomerate some $15 billion – or more revenue than Coca-Cola generates in a year.
The average price of Apple stock that Berkshire cashed in on in the second quarter was about $186 apiece. That puts it at a gain of a little more than $150 per share, or about $59 billion, according to estimates by Barron’s. Given this sum, and federal and state income taxes of 25%, that could come out to $15 billion in tax payments this year.
For reference, Coca-Cola made $14.3 billion from the second quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of 2024. Berkshire owns 400 million shares of Coca-Cola, or roughly 9.3% of the company.
Buffett has remained steadfast in his commitment to Apple’s stock, despite reducing Berkshire’s holdings.
“Unless something really extraordinary happens, we will own Apple, and American Express, and Coca-Cola when Greg takes over this place,” Buffett said during a question-and-answer session at the annual Berkshire shareholder conference in May, referring to Greg Abel, his handpicked successor.
MacDailyNews Take: For some perspective, as depressingly awful as it is, the U.S. National Debt stands at $35.155 trillion and counting, so Berkshire’s gigantic $15 billion tax payment would reduce the U.S. National Debt to $35.140 trillion.
In other words, when you do the math, raising taxes, even doubling, tripling, quadrupling, etc. taxes on corporations will do nothing for the U.S. debt, but drive companies to park cash offshore, cause layoffs, and raise prices on consumers since that’s who ultimately pays corporate taxes anyway. And anybody who tells you differently is lying, incapable of doing basic math, and/or lacks critical thinking skills.
Despite the selloff, Apple remains Berkshire’s biggest stock investment as it continues to hold $84.2 billion in AAPL stock.
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