🚨Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway cash levels hit a new record

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Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway released its Q4 2024 earnings report on Saturday from which we learned that the conglomerate now holds a record $334 billion in cash.

Notably, cash levels have doubled over the last 12 months.

The majority of it is held in US Treasury Bills of $287 billion. This is roughly $90 billion more than T-Bills held by the Federal Reserve.

As a result, cash as a percentage of total assets reached 29%, also an all-time high. This is even above the previous peak in 2005, a couple of years before the Great Financial Crisis of 2007-2009.

Moreover, Berkshire Hathaway has sold more stocks than it has bought for 9 consecutive quarters.

Nevertheless, the company still has the majority of its capital deployed in stocks.

Additionally, the Oracle of Omaha has not repurchased its own stock for the 2nd straight quarter.

Why? The company said in its report filings buybacks will resume when Warren Buffett “believes that the repurchase price is below Berkshire’s intrinsic value.” This suggests he thinks the stock might be overvalued.

In his annual letter to shareholders, Buffet also said he would “never prefer ownership of cash-equivalent assets over the ownership of good businesses” and "Often, nothing looks compelling; very infrequently we find ourselves knee-deep in opportunities."

This is a hint that the entire US stock market is overvalued to him.

We may believe this or not but his performance versus the market speaks for itself.

On the line chart, it looks even more impressive.

In summary:

• Warren Buffett sold stocks on the net for 9 consecutive quarters;

• built a record cash pile of $334 billion;

• cash as % of assets hit a record 29%, even above the previous 2005 peak;

• he has not bought back his own stock for the 2nd straight quarter;

• Buffett’s outperformance of the S&P 500 has been truly incredible.

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