Berkshire Hathaway eliminated nearly all of a large stake in Verizon Communications (VZ) in the quarter. The company held just 1.4 million shares of Verizon on March 31, down from almost 159 million shares on Dec. 31. Berkshire’s stake in Verizon totaled about $8 billion prior to the first-quarter sale.
Barron’s wrote earlier in May that Berkshire likely sold all or most of the Verizon stake based on our analysis of the company’s first-quarter 10-Q report.