(Bloomberg) –One year after Warren Buffett called his multibillion-dollar bet on
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. disclosed its third disposal of shares this month — paring its massive, profitable stake in the lender by a total of more than $3 billion.
The conglomerate, which started building an investment in the bank in 2011 and has long reigned as the top shareholder, sold $767 million of the stock from July 25 to July 29, according to a regulatory filing Monday. That and prior sales this month reduced Berkshire’s stake by a total of 6.9%.
Still, Berkshire holds almost 962 million shares, the filing shows — worth $39.5 billion at Monday’s closing price.
The sales mark Buffett’s biggest pullback from a bet that has long served as a prominent vote of confidence in the stewardship of
The stock has since slid 6.9%. It was little changed in early trading Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. in New York.
A representative for
Buffett initially plowed $5 billion into Charlotte, North Carolina-based
Buffett has said he was in the bathtub when he came up with the idea of intervening, arranging to acquire preferred stock and the right to buy common shares. His imprimatur quelled public doubts and soon sent the stock higher, creating a massive paper profit.
Berkshire kept investing in
“I like Brian Moynihan enormously,” he said that April. “I just don’t want to sell it.”