Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway nearly quadruples stake in Apple
Investor Warren Buffet bet big on Apple during the fourth quarter of 2016, as a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday reveals Berkshire Hathaway now owns more than 57 million shares of the tech giant.
The Oracle of Omaha nearly quadrupled his stake in the tech giant over the last three months of 2016, ending the year with 57.4 million shares worth roughly $6.64 billion as of Dec. 31, according to an SEC filing.
That figure is up from only 15.2 million shares worth about $1.7 billion in the prior quarter.
With AAPL shares trading at $135.01 at the end of trading on Tuesday, Buffett's chunk is valued at about $7.74 billion if the fund still holds the cache.
Alongside a buff to Apple holdings, Berkshire increased its position in airlines, with $2 billion investments in American Airlines Group, Delta Air Lines Inc, Southwest Airlines and United Continental Holdings, the filing shows.
Buffett tends to shy away from tech sector stocks, but that investing pattern is slowly changing. Last May, Berkshire took its first bite of Apple with a 9.81 million share buy which at the time was worth more than $1 billion. The fund increased holdings to the aforementioned 15.2 million AAPL shares in the September quarter.
The Oracle of Omaha nearly quadrupled his stake in the tech giant over the last three months of 2016, ending the year with 57.4 million shares worth roughly $6.64 billion as of Dec. 31, according to an SEC filing.
That figure is up from only 15.2 million shares worth about $1.7 billion in the prior quarter.
With AAPL shares trading at $135.01 at the end of trading on Tuesday, Buffett's chunk is valued at about $7.74 billion if the fund still holds the cache.
Alongside a buff to Apple holdings, Berkshire increased its position in airlines, with $2 billion investments in American Airlines Group, Delta Air Lines Inc, Southwest Airlines and United Continental Holdings, the filing shows.
Buffett tends to shy away from tech sector stocks, but that investing pattern is slowly changing. Last May, Berkshire took its first bite of Apple with a 9.81 million share buy which at the time was worth more than $1 billion. The fund increased holdings to the aforementioned 15.2 million AAPL shares in the September quarter.
Comments
Warrant Buffett didn't personally buy Apple shares. One of his investment lieutenants did.
https://blogs.rhsmith.umd.edu/davidkass/uncategorized/ted-weschler-explains-berkshire-hathaways-investment-in-apple-to-german-magazine/
But I suspect that Mr. Buffett, at the least, has signed off on any major equity investments. He - as Warren Buffett, not as Berkshire Hathaway - is listed on the (SEC Form) 13Fs as one of the institutional investment managers in connection with all of Berkshire Hathaway's Apple holdings just as he is for all of Berkshire Hathaway's 13F holdings. Other institutional investment managers (i.e. other entities, all of which are companies rather than natural persons) are listed in connection with most of those holdings, but they are listed in addition to Mr. Buffett not in place of him.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-14/berkshire-took-stake-in-seed-company-monsanto-in-fourth-quarter
While I am happy that the Buffett organization expresses strong confidence in Apple, it is not as if Buffett himself were betting the farm on Apple. Berkshire Hathaway market cap is $410 billion. Buffett is several magnitude bigger than Carl Icahn in terms of investment capital.
C'mon out of the woodwork, guys, you (and we) know who you are. Entertain us again. Please.
Facts are facts. I'm not a hater. In fact, I'm a WB fan and has been following his investing style for more than a decade.
If you google around a bit, the way Warren Buffett structures his lieutenants' investments is that each of the 2 has 9 billions to invest on their own, without needing WB's consent or input. Their investment picks are listed under his name by design so we can't really tell who actually made the investments. As pointed out by a recent article, his lieutenants' investments sometimes influence WF's investments but they are rare (Precision Cast Parts)
As I previously acknowledged, we don't know for sure how much input Mr. Buffett had on particular investments. But he is listed as one of the institutional investment managers with regard to Berkshire's equity investments because the law requires him to be if he exercises investment discretion over respective investment accounts (unless it were only his own money being invested). To what extent he uses that discretion - e.g., decides to buy or sell certain shares or rejects certain transactions - with regard to certain investments we don't necessarily know.
However, we do know that with regard to one block of AAPL shares worth almost $100 million now he is the only institutional investment manager listed. That means that no other natural person exercised investment discretion with regard to that investment, unless it was their own money that was invested.
http://news.morningstar.com/all/dow-jones/us-markets/2017021415910/berkshire-hathaway-discloses-increased-stake-in-apple.aspx