Warren Buffett reduced his holdings of BYD H shares again

The evening of April 11, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange disclosure easy to show that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sold 2.48 million BYD H shares on March 31, the average reduction price of HK$217.67 per share, the shareholding ratio fell from 11.13% to 10.90%, cashing out about HK$540 million. Since the first reduction of BYD in August 2022, this is the 10th time Warren Buffett has reduced his holdings, but also the fourth time this year.

Reporter statistics found that this is the 10th time the Hong Kong Stock Exchange disclosed that Warren Buffett reduced its holdings of BYD H shares, Buffett has reduced its holdings of BYD H shares by a total of 105.27 million shares, accounting for 46.79% of Buffett's holdings of BYD H shares, with a cumulative cash out of about HK$23.126 billion and a cumulative profit of about HK$22.284 billion.

As of March 31, Berkshire Hathaway still holds 119.7 million BYD H shares.

Public information shows that Warren Buffett's reduction of BYD H shares began in August 2022, to March 31, 2023 is the tenth time by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange disclosure of the reduction of BYD H shares.

According to the relevant provisions of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the shareholding percentage change of shareholders holding more than 5% of the shares will be disclosed only when crossing the whole number of percentages. This means that the overall number of BYD H shares reduced by Warren Buffett is more than the 10 times disclosed by the HKEx.

According to the average price of HK$219.678 per share of the above 10 reductions, Buffett has reduced its holdings of BYD H shares to cash out about HK$23.126 billion.

Information shows that in September 2008, Warren Buffett spent $230 million (HK$1.8 billion) to buy 225 million BYD H shares at HK$8 per share. If we do not take into account factors such as dividends during the period, Buffett reduced his holdings of BYD H shares by 105.27 million shares, costing about HK$842 million.

This means that Warren Buffett has invested in BYD for less than 15 years, and now has made a cumulative profit of about HK$22.284 billion from the reduction of his holdings.

Why does Warren Buffett continuously reduce his holdings in BYD?

In February this year, in the Daily Journal held the annual investor event, Berkshire Vice Chairman Munger had talked about the reduction of BYD.

Munger said that BYD's P/E ratio is already 50 times, and the price is no longer cheap. Of course, in terms of performance, it may have more than 50% earnings growth this year.

Munger said BYD is his favorite stock he has ever bought. "There's no business with a return on investment that exceeds BYD, and our investment in BYD is worth about $8 billion or $9 billion by now. That's a pretty good rate of return."

On the 12th, BYD's stock price shock adjustment, BYD A shares and BYD H shares fell 2.57% and 2.28% respectively. So far this year, BYD A shares fell more than 5%, BYD H shares rose more than 15%.