(Reuters) – Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has sold shares worth $228.7 million in Bank of America, as the conglomerate continues to trim its stake in the second-largest U.S. lender.
Berkshire, late on Tuesday, disclosed it has sold about 5.8 million BofA shares between Sept. 6 and Sept. 10.
That takes the total sale of shares to about 174.7 million since mid-July, raking in $7.19 billion, according to LSEG data.
Berkshire, still BofA’s largest shareholder, has to keep reporting sales regularly until its holding falls below 10%. It is currently at 11.1%.
The 94-year-old billionaire, one of the world’s most revered investors, started investing in BofA in 2011 when Berkshire bought $5 billion of preferred stock.
The stake sales come more than a year after Buffett praised BofA and CEO Brian Moynihan.
Moynihan said on Tuesday Buffett has been a “great” investor for the bank, but he did not ask the legendary investor about the recent stake sales.
“I don’t know what exactly he is doing because frankly we can’t ask,” Moynihan told investors at a financial conference in New York.
A Deutsche Bank analyst had said last week Berkshire could be aiming to get just below the 10% reporting threshold to avoid regulatory scrutiny.
Shares of Bank of America were down 0.8% in premarket trading on Wednesday. The lender’s stock has lagged the broader markets since Berkshire kicked off its selling spree.
(Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)
