Recently, United States Berkshire · Hathaway (Berkshire) sold another $337.9 million United States bank shares. Meanwhile, another document disclosed by Berkshire showed that the company planned to conduct a second yen bond issuance in global markets this year, sparking speculation that the company was looking to increase its investment in Japan.

In recent months, Warren Buffett has significantly reduced his holdings of various stocks

According to the latest report, Berkshire · Hathaway significantly reduced its stake in Apple in the second quarter, reducing the number of shares by more than 389 million shares, with a market value of about 82 billion US dollars (equivalent to about 580 billion yuan). Berkshire's stake in Apple fell 49.3 percent from the first quarter and its share of its portfolio fell by more than 10 percentage points.

In addition to this, Berkshire completely liquidated 6.12 million shares of Snowflake, a cloud computing company, worth $840 million, 4.37 million shares of Chevron stock, worth $680 million, and reduced its holdings of 2.65 million shares, a financial holding company, COF, worth $367 million.

It is worth noting that Warren Buffett has been a net seller of stocks for seven consecutive quarters, and the total size of the overall U.S. stock holdings has shrunk. As of the end of June, Berkshire's cash reserves reached nearly 277 billion US dollars (equivalent to about 1.95 trillion yuan), and this huge amount of cash mainly came from the sale of large amounts of shares, especially Apple shares.

In addition, Berkshire's pace of share buybacks has slowed significantly. According to disclosures in August, recent buyback activity has been significantly reduced after several quarters of large-scale buybacks. Berkshire bought back only about $345 million of shares in the second quarter, the lowest quarterly buyback amount since 2018, the data showed.

After three consecutive months of sell-offs, Berkshire's stake in United States banks is close to the "regulatory tipping point" of 10% and is now around 10.2%. According to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), when Berkshire's stake falls below 10%, companies will no longer be required to disclose their transactions within two business days of the transaction, but will instead disclose it on a quarterly basis. Analysts speculate that Buffett is likely to continue to reduce his holdings of United States banks in a "low-key" manner after reducing his holdings to less than 10%.

Planned second Japanese yen bond issuance

Berkshire · Hathaway revealed a document showing that the company plans to enter the global market again this year to issue yen bonds, a move that has sparked speculation that it may expand its investment in Japan.

The filing indicates that Berkshire has appointed United States Bank Securities and Japan's Mizuho Securities to issue the yen-denominated senior unsecured bonds. Berkshire has been a regular in the yen bill market since 2019, with its most recent yen bond issuance in April, which raised a total of 263.3 billion yen ($1.71 billion), the second-largest of the eight yen bond issuances in Berkshire's history, behind the record 430 billion yen in early 2019.

Berkshire's fundraising move has attracted the attention of stock market investors. Previously, Buffett announced the purchase of shares in Japan's five largest trading companies, a move that not only attracted global capital inflows into the Japan stock market, but also pushed the Nikkei 225 index to a record high. These Japan trading companies include Itochu Corporation, Marubeni Corporation, Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsui & Co., and Sumitomo Corporation.

In a February 2023 letter to shareholders, Buffett mentioned that Berkshire's investments in Japan companies are mainly financed by the issuance of yen bonds. The letter also revealed that Berkshire's stake in the five Japan trading companies has risen to about 9%, with a total investment cost of 1.6 trillion yen. By the end of 2023, the value of these investments had grown to 2.9 trillion yen. This means that Berkshire achieved 61% of its unrealized dollar gains in 2023, equivalent to $8 billion. Buffett said these investments will serve as a long-term strategic deployment for up to 10 to 20 years.

Buffett's return may boost Japanese stocks

Technical Analyst Eiji In its latest research report, Kinouchi pointed out that the insurance and shipping industries have the potential to be the targets of Buffett's future investments. Kinouchi mentioned in the report that although the share price of Japan trading companies rose after the news of Berkshire's issuance of yen bonds, it did not significantly outperform the broader market. By contrast, shipping and insurance stocks have been the top gainers in the Tokyo Stock Exchange index since August, which may be in line with Buffett's value investing philosophy.

Analysts believe that Buffett's return is expected to inject new vitality into the Japan stock market. Earlier, Buffett's investments in Japan's five largest trading companies drove the Nikkei 225 to a record high. If Buffett's eyes turn to other sectors, this will provide support for the Japan market, which has been volatile in recent months due to political uncertainty and exchange rate volatility.

Takashi, senior strategist at Nomura Securities Ito said that Buffett is more likely to buy such stocks, given that Buffett tends to invest in financial stocks, especially after the Bank of Japan raised interest rates, which is conducive to improving the profit margin of the industry. Nomura's analysts also believe that companies such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group have characteristics that match Berkshire's portfolio.