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Berkshire Hathaway Unloads All Its GM Stock

Investment company Berkshire Hathaway has sold all of its GM stock after unloading nearly half its stake in the automaker during the second quarter of the 2023 calendar year. GM stock value has dropped nearly 17 percent since the start of the year, with the automaker recently facing pressure as a result of the United Auto Workers (UAW) labor strike. Berkshire Hathaway is an American multinational conglomerate run by billionaire Warren Buffett.

General Motors signage at the GM Renaissance Center in Michigan.

Per a recent report from Reuters, which cites a regulatory filing detailing Berkshire’s U.S.-listed stock holdings, the conglomerate eliminated its holdings in General Motors as of September 30th, 2023. Berkshire’s $318.6 billion equity portfolio now includes a small investment in the company that indirectly owns the Atlanta Braves baseball team, while Berkshire also eliminated holdings in Procter & Gamble. Berkshire sold $7 billion worth of stocks and purchased $1.7 billion during Q3.

Berkshire previously sold 45 percent of its stake in GM during Q2 of 2023, down from 40 million shares to roughly 22 million shares.

GM stock value has hovered between $30 per share and $40 per share throughout the 2023 calendar year, with the automaker’s Q2 earnings report highlighted by $44.7 billion in revenue, $2.6 billion in net income attributable to stockholders, and EBIT-adjusted of $3.2 billion. GM’s Q3 earnings were highlighted by $44.1 billion in revenue, an increase of 5.4 percent, $3.1 billion in net income, a decrease of 7.3 percent, and $3.6 billion in adjusted earnings before interest and taxes, a decrease of 17 percent.

One of the biggest factors affecting GM stock value for the past six weeks was the United Auto Workers (UAW) labor strike, which began on September 15th, 2023 following the expiration of the previous labor contract. The strike affected several major GM production facilities, and was estimated to have cost the automaker hundreds of millions of dollars per week. UAW membership have yet to ratify the new agreement, and if union members end up rejecting the proposal, the union may call for additional strikes.

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Jonathan is an automotive journalist based out of Southern California. He loves anything and everything on four wheels.

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Comments

  1. Smart money is jumping ship.

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    1. That’s called “blood in the water”. That whole ‘EV future’ ain’t so bright anymore.

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  2. How much does Mary make a year? Horrible.

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    1. Her salary is pretty small, but her bonus is insane based off stock performance, and a large part of that is stock options, so next year she might loose 2-3 years of salary if the stock really dives. She would be wise to retire right now. That’s what happens when you plan only 6 months out instead of planning long term.

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      1. Wasnt her pay the highest of the big 3? then again compared to the ponzi lucid and its 380mil pay to the ceo it does make it seem rather modest. heh.

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        1. Ponzi Lucid is a criminal. A super thief of the worst kind.

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        2. The problem I have with Mary Buick Envision Made in China-Barra is that she discontinues the budget models and replaces them with more expensive models. It’s obvious that the Camaro was on the chopping block for some time. The Malibu will be next.

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          1. The reality is the budget models make no money, Options are where the money is.

            For too long GM offered models that made no money till they went broke. They lost money on nearly ever W model sold.

            To make more Money on a Bu you really would need to go off shore.

            Cars like the Spark and Sonic made little to nothing even built off shore.

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            1. I think that they need the small budget models to offset the bigger SUV’s to meet their EPA fleet mileage

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            2. You have the same thinking as Mary Buick Envision Made in China-Barra, budget models are not profitable so damn the budget-minded consumer, GM has plenty of profitable products to make up for them, ($70,000+ Tahoes, $75,000+ Yukons, $80,000+ Suburbans, $90,000+ Yukon XLs, $100,000+ Escalades, $150,000+ Escalade-Vs to name a few). Thank you again Warren Buffet.

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            3. Nonsense. It’s called volume. Just ask Honda, Toyota, and Hyundai.

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            4. If done right as a long-term strategy, budget models (if reliable) can create brand loyalty for younger people…then as individual buying power increases, GM could sell them Cadillacs, Corvettes, Denalis, etc.
              Toyota/Lexus successfully does this with fewer model options than GM…

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            5. Can’t make $$$$ if a product doesn’t sell. Anyone that has a genuine education knows that.

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          2. Tons of low-end Camrys, Corollas, Hyundais, Hondas, and comparables running around, and “gm” ignores that market…

            Mary deserves more praise and awards….or something.

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      2. The truth is she was paid little and could sell the stock at any time. But she is sitting on it.

        She is 10-15 years out as that is why we are seeing the EV models that will be required by law in 2035. This is not pandering this is survival.

        Mary and Mark will keep ice around as long as legally possible, Can that be pushed out? Depends on how Americans vote.

        The stock sell off is more about the strike and settlement.

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        1. Paid little ? Barra’s actual take-home compensation was $30.1 million in 2019 and $34.1 million in 2022, & over $200 MILLION in the last few years.

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    2. Paid little ? Barra’s actual take-home compensation was $30.1 million in 2019 and $34.1 million in 2022, & over $200 MILLION in the last few years.

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  3. Go woke and go broke. Hope I’m wrong.

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    1. A company that makes the Corvette, Escalade and SIlverado can’t be described as “woke”.

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      1. And how many people can afford the big ticket items?

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        1. I guess sales numbers will answer that question.

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        2. The 1% crowd.

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    2. I hope you’re right…

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  4. Remember Barclays telling everyone it was good to buy the stock a week ago? They didn’t say it out of the goodness of their hearts.

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  5. At least Lebron got paid for promoting the Hummer EV? Right?

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  6. The all-in plan to bypass hybrids and go straight to EVs is looking really stupid right now. Looks like the pool of early adopters for EVs is dry.

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    1. 100%. And their doubling-down on it despite the consumer market clearly saying they want something different is not how you ensure the future success of your company. You have to build things that people want, not pander to virtue-signalling, eco-activist politicians.

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      1. Look the Hybrids are not the answer. They still are both ICE and EV and you are still stuck with a $6000 battery change and oil changes.

        You want a different outcome get the people in office that oppose these coming green agenda rules. GM is not passing these laws but they have to abide by them.

        GM wants ICE. Note the ICE models are not going to go away till they are forced to cut them.

        Mary put out a new V8 we will see soon too. You had better start getting your fact straight on who to blame for what.

        The problems is with the EPA and CARB. The real trouble will be carb as they control 14 states and nearly half the American market. Getting them to back down is not going to be easy.

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        1. I grew up in SoCal in the 60s. We had “smog alerts” where it literally hurt to breathe. School kids had to stay inside during recess. It was horrible. This generation has no idea what a smog alert is, thanks largely to CARB. And all love/hate for ICE aside, they’re woefully inefficient – – only about 30% of fuel energy is for propulsion. The majority is converted to waste heat, with some friction loss as well.

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          1. People here do not understand the concept of a ‘Prime Mover’. The total efficiency needs to be calculated. I drive 3 plug in cars, but recharging comes from 14% efficient solar panels.

            Ice vehicles are more efficient than anything I have.

            The inefficiency I tolerate since my locale has yet to tax sunshine, therefore I like all my GM Ev’s.

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        2. I don’t disagree with you, though I do think if the goal is actually emissions reductions, adding mild hybrid systems to normally ICE vehicles (like trucks) would be a good way to achieve that (since anyone who takes an honest look at the supply chain knows that EVs are far from green themselves).

          As countries around the world see what happened in Germany with their all-renewable failure, and are coming to their senses that we will need conventional fuels for a long time, especially if there is no major technological breakthrough in battery tech (both in energy density, performance in harsh conditions, and charging speed), it is not realistic or achievable to ban ICE vehicles in 12 years. If battery and charging tech only improves incrementally by 2035, and the fundamental limitations we have today have not been solved, we will see impacts to the economy and every-day life that will be unacceptable to the public, and the government will have to cave. While I recognize that for the time being, automakers are bound to the 2035 regulations, savvy companies are keeping their options open in case policy changes rather than just accepting it and diving head-first into a shallow pool.

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  7. oooooof

    wait.. jacking msrp every year for no reason, pushing 300k electric cadillacs (that arent even in production) and having half the parts and options on “constraint” that you arent told about till past your vehicle delivery due date is a bad way to handle a corporation? shocker.

    mary msrp barra says have another 90k “limited run” denali truck and be silent! next year we are making destination charge 5k so you better act fast. and the whole self destructing AFM thing? we see no problem with it. at all.

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  8. Thank you, Warren Buffet, Mary Buick Envision Made in China-Barra is one step closer to getting fired. I hope the rest of the investors follow suit.

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  9. How gm can continuously elevate horrendous ceo after horrendous ceo is quite the trick. Roger Smith on one side and Roger Smith in a pantsuit on the other side. That’s a pair of bookends that would make any corporation fail.

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  10. Investors are losing confidence in GM’s strategy, and for good reason…the EV-only push is not going to end well for GM if they keep this up.

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  11. Here is the deal GM and all automakers will be hit with much higher costs due to the UAW settlements. It will drive up car prices nearly $1000 per unit sold.

    Like it or not unless the EPA and CARB back off on the EV by 2035 mandates they will have to continue the EV pace as it has been.

    Not sure where some of you get your news but GM and or any other automaker is not doing the all EV because they want to but because the coming laws will require it.

    If some of you would pay attention to who you vote for you would have not let this happen in the first place. It is the people who voted the new green agenda folks in that want this.

    If any of you have paid attention Mary has kept the ICE models going as they do the EV. We have two Blazers, Two Nox, both types of trucks etc. She is not going to let ICE go till they have to.

    Any of you note she green lighted a new V8 for the trucks?

    GM is keeping quiet on this as they do not want the wrath of the Green agenda people on their backs.

    Even if we keep ICE we will be saddled with under powered 3 cylinder turbo engine. The Hybrids are no better as they just add more cost and a $6000 dollar battery that goes bad after warranty.

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    1. Do you really think buyers of $70,000 GM products will notice the $1,000, I also don’t believe prices will go up $1000/vehicle due to labor, since prior to the agreement, labor was 7.6% of MSRP, they will go up less than $1,000 per vehicle, if they go up more than $1000/vehicle, it will be as UAW President Shawn Fain would say, corporate greed.

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    2. UAW went 20years on 2$ pay raise- the ATP went from 26,000 to almost 48,000- so do not lay this on UAW. When McDs and WalM cashiers are making more than 5 year auto workers there had to be a change.

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  12. Remember, Warren Buffett does buy and hold a lot of company stocks for the long term. But he does trim his holdings on a regular basis and has also excited UPS and Johnson & Johnson in 2023 along with other changes. He is some information that I came across from late May:

    “It’s better to identify opportunities with more certainty, Buffett explained.”
    “I think I know where Apple’s going to be in 5 or 10 years,” he said, “and I don’t know what the car companies are going to be in 5 or 10 years.”

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    1. For whatever reason, I am glad he did it.

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  13. Look at the $$10 Billion dollars that could have been added to GM balance sheet if Mary Barra had not F the money up in her fantasy toy Cruise.

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    1. It was a smart move by GM- using a smaller 3rd party to insulate GM from possible liabilities should one of the units gone all KILL ALL HUMANS or something. Now they let the company burn down and take the knowledge for future super cruise etc.

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  14. Why BMW has its balance sheet green if they do not rely on big pick up trucks? Same as VW / Porsche / Audi / Seat. VW does build a truck, the Amarok, only in Argentina for the entire world, except the USA. But they keep the basic truck unchanged until the ROI has been completed. As they say in their slogan “it does not change, it evolves”. That Amarok has a lot of common parts with VW sedans, Audis and Seats and if the component is something that does not need a change, they keep it for decades. There is a story of the Toyota Corolla roof reading light that did not change for 10 generations, until a theatre dimming type of light + LED came to be a need. But just as this example, where no validation is needed for years of a vehicle that is where the big money savings come. Kia / Hyundai does not rely on big trucks either. They come up with refreshed models constantly not new “from the ground up” ones.
    On top of this, they get married with their suppliers for the long run therefore allowing them to use and reuse and recycle all if not the majority of their capital investment, with little modifications to make the “new or refresh” component.
    On the opposite side take as an example the Silverado / Sierra. Why did GM redesigned 100% of the current truck vs the previous generation? I mean, not even the rear view mirror stayed. The fuel door. The seats. The fuel tank. All this items that are certainly not a decision making to whether I will or not buy a truck. And for each part number, there goes new molds, new tools, new process, new suppliers, new validation which means billions of dollars before the 1st truck is sold to the 1st customer.
    What company needs a Loyalty VP? If you do the things right, at the reasonable price with excellence service, with service parts with small mark ups and above all, you RESPECT your customers by delivering the vehicle they are used to every time they get the new one (Camry, Corolla, Porsche 911, Honda Civic, BMW 3 series, Mini Cooper, to name a few) you do not need a very expensive organization that struggles to keep the loyalty.
    Who can think that a CT5 or CT6 will be a replacement of a Mercedes Benz of a Dubai or Saudi prince?
    For the same reason that Mary and Mark killed the Chevy Volt Gen 2, which has been the only PZEV (Partially Zero Emission Vehicle) that has ever existed? And they did it only after 3 years of having it launched. Who is still paying for all the tools and molds and machinery that were left rotting when still new? The current customers of all other vehicles.
    In less than 10 years history will judge….

    Reply

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