Updated Aug. 3, 2024 at 10:43 am ET

Attendees of the annual meeting earlier this year in Omaha, Neb. Photo: Rebecca S. Gratz/Associated Press

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has been in selling mode.

The famed investor’s Omaha, Neb., company revealed Saturday that it sold nearly half its Apple AAPL 0.69%increase; green up pointing triangle shares in the second quarter, slashing its mammoth position in the iPhone maker after significant sales earlier in the year.

Berkshire sold a net $75.5 billion in stocks in the three months through June, helping boost its cash hoard to a record $276.94 billion, including cash equivalents, the company’s financial statements show.

The disclosures come after Berkshire in recent days methodically trimmed its investment in Bank of America, its second-largest stock position after Apple.

The stock sales and mountain of cash show the challenge Buffett has encountered finding good investments that are priced low enough to make a solid return likely. The stock market has grown more expensive: The S&P 500 recently traded at nearly 21 times its projected earnings over the next 12 months, above a 20-year average of nearly 16 times, according to FactSet. Buffett spoke about the difficulty of deploying the cash at Berkshire’s annual meeting in May.

“We’d love to spend it, but we won’t spend it unless we think we’re doing something that has very little risk and can make us a lot of money,” he said.

Berkshire sold about $3.8 billion worth of Bank of America stock over the 12 trading days through Thursday, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, leaving it with a 12.15% stake in the bank that would have been worth more than $35 billion at Friday’s close.

Bank of America shares had rallied in recent months, rising 75% from a low in late October to the time Berkshire began selling in July.

“He doesn’t seem to be in love with banks,” said James Shanahan, a senior equity research analyst at Edward Jones. “There’s been a lot of selling activity among bank holdings in recent years.”

A quarterly filing released Saturday showed Berkshire sold about 49% of its Apple stock in the second quarter, leaving it with a position worth $84.2 billion at the end of June.

That was after cutting the investment 13% in the first quarter. Buffett praised Apple from the stage of Berkshire’s annual meeting in May, calling it “an even better business” than American Express and Coca-Cola, two other big holdings. He suggested an expectation that tax rates might rise played into the call to take some profits on the position, which has gained enormous value as Apple’s stock soared in recent years. Apple shares have risen 14% in 2024.

Buffett’s reputation as one of the greatest stock pickers of all time means his moves carry significant weight with many investors.

Macrae Sykes, a portfolio manager at Gabelli Funds, holds Berkshire and Bank of America shares in an exchange-traded fund. He said the fact that Buffett’s company was selling the bank’s stock gives him pause.

Chairman Warren Buffett attending the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders’ meeting in Omaha, Neb., in May. Photo: scott morgan/Reuters

“He’s one of the world’s foremost investors and obviously has an incredible history of allocating in financial services,” Sykes said. “Something like this is important to pay attention to and check our research.”

Berkshire invested in Bank of America in 2011 in the aftermath of the financial crisis, offering a vote of confidence at a time when investors were questioning the bank’s health. It became the bank’s largest shareholder in 2017 and held that position after Thursday’s sales.

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Buffett’s company has sold other bank holdings in recent years, exiting positions in JPMorgan Chase and in Wells Fargo.

Berkshire, which owns businesses including insurer Geico, railroad BNSF Railway and sportswear maker Brooks Running, posted net income of $30.3 billion, or $21,122 a class A share equivalent, for the second quarter. That compared with net income of $35.9 billion, or $24,775 a share, in the year-earlier period.

Operating earnings, which exclude some investment results, rose to $11.6 billion, from $10 billion a year earlier. Increases in insurance underwriting and insurance investment income pushed operating earnings higher for the quarter.

Buffett has said that operating earnings are the better measure of the company’s performance. Berkshire is required by accounting rules to include unrealized gains and losses from its giant investment portfolio when it reports net income, so short-term fluctuations in the stock market influence those results.

Berkshire spent $345 million buying back shares in the second quarter, down from $2.6 billion repurchasing stock in the first quarter. Berkshire’s Class A shares are up 18% in 2024, outpacing the S&P 500’s 12% gain.

Write to Karen Langley at karen.langley@wsj.com