Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., once the biggest holder of Wells Fargo & Co. common stock, has slashed its investment in the troubled bank by more than 40%.
The San Francisco-based lender is struggling in the wake of a major consumer-abuse scandal and its stock price has been depressed at under $25 a share. Berkshire Hathaway has now sold more than 100 million shares, trimming its stake in Wells Fargo common stock to about 3.3%, according to a regulatory filing.
Berkshire Hathaway, a long-time investor in the Wells Fargo, has been trimming its stake in recent months, bringing it down to $3.4 billion U.S. Wells Fargo is grappling with lingering fallout from its sales scandals plus the effects of the pandemic and related branch shutdowns across the U.S. Wells Fargo’s stock price is down more than 50% year-to-date.
The lender announced in July that it would cut its dividend. The bank posted its first quarterly loss since 2008 in the three months ended June 30 as it set aside a record $9.5 billion U.S. for credit losses. Under new Chief Executive Officer Charlie Scharf, Wells Fargo has pledged to cut $10 billion U.S. in annual expenses and has embarked on job cuts that could ultimately number in the tens of thousands.
