'Sticky' iPhone caused Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway to buy more AAPL than anything ...

Posted:
in AAPL Investors edited February 2018
The "Oracle of Omaha" Warren Buffett continues his recent run of buying massive amounts of Apple stock, with Berkshire Hathaway having only one stock with more value in total.




Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett appeared on CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Monday morning, and finally caved to the host's questions on what was the best stock to buy.

"If you look at our holdings, you would assume that we like them in the order in which they rank by dollar value of holdings," Buffett said "But, if you look at them in terms of recent purchases over the last year we've bought more Apple than anything else."

Apple is still not the company's largest holding. Wells Fargo slightly edges out Apple, with the firm holding $29.3 billion in the bank's stock. Apple is second with $28.2 billion. There are no other tech companies in Berkshire Hathaway's top 15 holdings by value.




"Apple has an extraordinary consumer franchise," said Buffett. "I see how strong that ecosystem is, to an extraordinary degree. You are very, very, very locked in, at least psychologically and mentally, to the product you are using. [iPhone] is a very sticky product."

Earlier in February, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing by Berkshire Hathaway declared that the firm had raised its stake in Apple by 23.3 percent to hit 165.3 million shares. At the same time, Berkshire Hathaway dumped 94.5 percent of its IBM holdings since October 2017.

Buffett has steadily increased his stake in Apple after first getting started with mass-buys in 2016 worth $1 billion. At the end of 2016, Berkshire's position moved up to 57.4 million shares worth $6.64 billion. That figure quickly jumped to 133 million shares worth $17 billion as of last February.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member
    All it will take is Apple to go up a few points and it will be the largest holdings. As Buffett said, after 10 yrs of challengers to Apple's ecosystem no competitors has put a dent in it. Apple still attract far more new people than they lose today, and it does not look like that is changing.
    jony0watto_cobraCyborgKungFu
  • Reply 2 of 7
    blastdoorblastdoor Posts: 3,258member
    I think the stickiness really kicks in when you combine an iPhone with a Mac. 
    toysandmeanton zuykovwatto_cobraCyborgKungFu
  • Reply 3 of 7
    wlymwlym Posts: 102member
    My Magic Mouse is especially sticky.
    jdgazking editor the grateanton zuykovSpamSandwichCyborgKungFu
  • Reply 4 of 7
    carnegiecarnegie Posts: 1,077member

    ...

    Apple is still not the company's largest holding. Wells Fargo slightly edges out Apple, with the firm holding $29.3 billion in the bank's stock. Apple is second with $28.2 billion. There are no other tech companies in Berkshire Hathaway's top 15 holdings by value.

    ...
    That was the case as of the end of (calendar year) 2017. But it isn't the case now, assuming Berkshire hasn't (net) bought more WFC (which Berkshire hasn't done in recent years) or (net) sold AAPL this year. With the reported share holdings, Berkshire now owns about $29.6 billion worth of AAPL and about $28.6 billion worth of WFC.
    jony0watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 7
    He definitely has a point. Anecdotal, I know, but my wife and her friends will not even consider anything other than an iPhone. When it came time to upgrade, it was between an 8 and a X, not a Pixel, Galaxy, etc. When I mentioned the Pixel and it’s arguably superior camera, she dismissed it and said she didn’t care about that. But when she finally decided on the X, it was.... because it had a better camera than the 8. 🤷🏻‍♂️
    jony0watto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 7
    AF_Hitt said:
    He definitely has a point. Anecdotal, I know, but my wife and her friends will not even consider anything other than an iPhone. When it came time to upgrade, it was between an 8 and a X, not a Pixel, Galaxy, etc. When I mentioned the Pixel and it’s arguably superior camera, she dismissed it and said she didn’t care about that. But when she finally decided on the X, it was.... because it had a better camera than the 8. 🤷🏻‍♂️
    Even if a camera is marginally better (even that is consistently true for different criteria), it is that access to the proverbial garden, that you buy and use. Transition between devices for every day internet browsing, note taking and other such activities, is almost seamless. Passwords are stored and can be accessed via iCloud, tabs opened on iPhone automatically can be picked up and opened on any other iDevice or Mac without any fiddling. It saves time and helps you concentrate on what is important. And you stress out less, when using a device - something is very important in the long term.
    watto_cobraCyborgKungFu
  • Reply 7 of 7
    AF_Hitt said:
    He definitely has a point. Anecdotal, I know, but my wife and her friends will not even consider anything other than an iPhone. When it came time to upgrade, it was between an 8 and a X, not a Pixel, Galaxy, etc. When I mentioned the Pixel and it’s arguably superior camera, she dismissed it and said she didn’t care about that. But when she finally decided on the X, it was.... because it had a better camera than the 8. 🤷🏻‍♂️
    Even if a camera is marginally better (even that is consistently true for different criteria), it is that access to the proverbial garden, that you buy and use. Transition between devices for every day internet browsing, note taking and other such activities, is almost seamless. Passwords are stored and can be accessed via iCloud, tabs opened on iPhone automatically can be picked up and opened on any other iDevice or Mac without any fiddling. It saves time and helps you concentrate on what is important. And you stress out less, when using a device - something is very important in the long term.
    Trust me, I agree. We have two X’s, both of us have Apple Watches, a family MacBook, Apple TVs for every television set in our house, and an iPad for our son. The integration is unparalleled, and definitely relieves stress. I also like to be an informed consumer, though, and will always do my research on all the options in a marketplace. My point was that there are people, not unlike my wife, that won’t even do that, and will only ever consider whatever the newest iPhone is when it comes time for replacement.
    SpamSandwich
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