Warren Buffett tours the floor ahead of the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder’s Meeting in Omaha, Nebraska.
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Warren Buffett’s conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway has reduced its stake in HP to 5.2%, according to a regulatory filing released Monday night.
The conglomerate previously had a nine-day selling streak in mid-September through early October, bringing down the bet on the printer and PC maker to about 10%.
Shares of HP dipped more than 1% in after-hours trading Monday following the news.
Berkshire still owns 51.5 million shares of HP, worth about $1.6 billion based on Monday’s close of $30.37. The Omaha-based investing giant is still the third-largest institutional shareholder of HP, only behind BlackRock and Vanguard, according to FactSet.
Last month, HP issued first-quarter profit guidance that came below Wall Street estimates, according to LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv. However, the firm kept its full-year earnings outlook, signaling that the demand in the personal computers market could still be recovering.
Berkshire initially bought the tech hardware stock in April 2022. The bet, however, hasn’t been lucrative as the stock is still below the level where it was first bought. Shares are up 13% this year, underperforming the Nasdaq Composite, which has rallied nearly 38%.
HP
Many Buffett watchers had already suspected that the Oracle of Omaha’s intention is to dump the stake entirely.
The 93-year-old investment icon views stock holdings as pieces of businesses, so he typically closes out a position once he starts selling.
“We don’t trim positions. That’s just not the way we approach it any more than if we buy 100% of a business,” he once said.
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