Warren Buffett is piling up cash rather than investing. Is that a warning signal?

For years, investor Warren Buffett has been piling up spare cash.

Once I say piling up cash, I actually imply piling up cash – a whole bunch of billions of {dollars}, actually.

However that is one among historical past’s most profitable traders. Why is he not placing that cash to make use of available in the market – and would possibly it’s a warning sign for me as an investor?

Buffett has his personal causes

In truth, Warren Buffett has not been utterly idle.

Certainly, his firm Berkshire Hathaway just lately introduced an acquisition that may use round $10bn of its spare money.

For many companies that might be seen as a major transfer. It’s a signal of Warren Buffett’s success as an investor that, even after shelling out $10bn, his money pile will hardly be dented.

Nonetheless, it does elevate the query: why is Warren Buffett sitting on his palms a lot of the time reasonably than placing extra of that vast money pile to work?

The reply is: we might by no means know. Buffett has his personal causes for doing issues and we might by no means totally perceive all of them, although he generally shares his considering.

On prime of that, what works for Warren Buffett won’t work for different traders. We every have our personal assets, targets, and threat tolerance.

So simply because he’s or will not be doing one thing ought not essentially to affect my very own strategy. Certainly, Buffett himself has identified that there are alternatives for small, personal traders that he wouldn’t longer contact purely as a result of he has a lot cash to speculate that such small investments wouldn’t “transfer the needle”.

Apple had made Buffett billions

That mentioned, although, I do see some warning indicators in Buffett’s strategy in recent times.

Take Berkshire’s stake in Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), for instance. This has been its largest holding for some years – and stays so. However Warren Buffett’s firm has bought tens of billions of {dollars} of Apple inventory in recent times. It has then finished little with that cash so far.

That hardly looks as if a vote of confidence. Then once more, even after these gross sales, Apple stays a considerable holding within the Berkshire portfolio.

So, on one hand, this transfer could make sense. Buffett has been capable of take huge quantities of revenue off the desk by promoting a part of Berkshire’s Apple stake.

With the expansion in Apple’s inventory worth, Berkshire’s stake had change into an even bigger and greater a part of its portfolio. By decreasing that stake, Buffett has been serving to to maintain the portfolio diversified.

That makes good sense. In spite of everything, Apple has confronted rising worth competitors from Asian rivals. That might damage its revenue margins in addition to its gross sales.

Cash sitting, ready

Then again, it nonetheless has numerous issues we all know Warren Buffett likes in an organization, from a powerful model to a deep aggressive benefit (or ‘moat’) because of its put in person base and repair ecosystem. He has been promoting its shares – however nonetheless retains a considerable stake.

So I don’t interpret Buffett’s sale as an indication that he essentially thinks Apple is overvalued.

I feel he’s staying diversified — because the canny investor he’s — whereas persevering with to search for alternatives to spend money on nice companies at enticing costs. That appears good to me.