Trump buys Berkshire Hathaway stock for the first time amid more than 1,000 trades in a month

Donald Trump bought Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B) shares for the first time in June while making 1,051 separate financial transactions across stocks, bonds, and exchange-traded funds, according to Trump’s latest financial filing released on Aug. 22.

The trades ranged from $78.1 million to $263.1 million as the disclosure law provides that transactions may be disclosed with ranges in value rather than with an exact dollar figure.

Trump made purchases exceeding $49 million of securities in the month under review while he had sales in excess of $28.5 million.

A particular purchase Trump made was the sale of Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (NYSEARCA: VIG) on June 22 worth $5 million to $25 million.

On that same date, he bought between $1 million and $5 million each of Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE: FIS) and Home Depot (NYSE: HD). Those were his biggest purchases of either company during June, though the filing also shows that Trump sold some FIS shares at other points during the month.

The sheer number of trades was unusual. Federal rules only require disclosure when a securities transaction is worth more than $1,000, and most of Trump’s reported activity fell into value bands below $1 million.

Trump adds Berkshire, Visa and Mastercard after stocks rebound from Fed-driven selling

June 18 brought some of Trump’s largest individual stock moves. He sold between $1 million and $5 million each of Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META) and Motorola Solutions (NYSE: MSI). He then put the same dollar range into four different companies: Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.B), Cintas (NASDAQ: CTAS), Visa (NYSE: V), and Mastercard (NYSE: MA).

Those trades came right after a rough session for U.S. stocks. Markets had fallen on June 17 as investors reacted to uncertainty around monetary policy following Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh’s first meeting in charge. Stocks recovered on June 18, the same day Trump made the Berkshire, Cintas, Visa, and Mastercard purchases.

Trump also changed his ETF exposure. His June purchases included the iShares U.S. Treasury Bond ETF (NYSEARCA: GOVT), Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA: XLK), and iShares GSCI Commodity Dynamic Roll Strategy ETF (NYSEARCA: COMT). He added several municipal bonds as well.

With regard to selling operations, he trimmed his holdings in the Vanguard Short-Term Bond ETF (NYSEARCA:BSV), the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSEARCA:XLY), and the Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF (NYSEARCA:VGK).

The total number of stock and bond trading deals made on his behalf was 25; these deals were all made in the amounts between $1 million and $5 million.

Trump was also busy with defense stocks. He bought between $1,001 and $15,000 of Palantir Technologies (NASDAQ: PLTR) on June 3. He then sold between $15,001 and $50,000 on June 16 and another $500,001 to $1 million on June 18. The U.S. and Iran had reached a peace agreement on June 14. Trump returned to Palantir with another smaller purchase on June 23.

He bought between $100,001 and $250,000 of RTX (NYSE: RTX) on June 12. That day, he also sold between $1,001 and $15,000 of Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC). Trump bought Northrop again on June 23, then sold it one day later.

Trump trades Coinbase as Berkshire’s shrinking cash pile brings questions over who is making its stock calls

Crypto also appeared repeatedly in Trump’s June activity. He moved in and out of Coinbase Global (NASDAQ: COIN) while Bitcoin was losing ground. Between June 12 and June 23, Trump sold between $116,003 and $315,000 of Coinbase shares. On June 24, he switched direction and bought between $50,001 and $100,000.

The Berkshire purchase came during a particularly interesting stretch for the company. Berkshire Hathaway recently reported that its giant cash position fell by billions of dollars during the second quarter. It was the first meaningful decline in the company’s cash reserves since early 2022.

That drop initially fed the idea that new CEO Greg Abel had started putting a “[big chunk of Berkshire’s cash to work.” The assumption was easy enough to make because Abel had recently taken the top job and Berkshire’s enormous cash balance had finally started moving lower.

Then Berkshire disclosed the details of its equity portfolio as of June 30, and the picture became less straightforward.