Berkshire Hathaway's Apple stake now worth over $50 billion

Posted:
in AAPL Investors edited August 2018
Apple remains the most valuable company in the portfolio of Warren Buffett's company, which has been gradually increasing its Apple stake since 2016.

Berkshire Hathaway's Warren Buffett


Berkshire Hathaway, the firm controlled by mega-investor Warren Buffett, owned approximately 246.5 million shares of Apple as of the end of June, a slight increase from three months prior, according to a 10-Q filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and cited by Business Insider..

The shares valued the company's Apple stake at just under $50 billion as of June 30, but Apple's stock is trading at $209.25 a share as of Tuesday morning. That means Berkshire's stake, if they still own the same number of shares today, is now worth over $51.5 billion.

Apple, since February, has been the most valuable company in Berkshire's portfolio. Berkshire Hathaway remains Apple's third-largest shareholder, behind only Vanguard and BlackRock.

"I would love to own 100 percent"

Throughout April, Apple's stock was taking a beating based on analyst speculation about soft iPhone demand. But two events in early May helped calm investors' nerves. First, the company announced better-than-expected second quarter earnings. And then, Buffett disclosed that he had upped his stake in Apple.

On May 3, Buffett announced that Berkshire had bought 75 million shares in the first quarter of the year. Buffett had never invested in Apple until 2016, but his company has gradually bought more and more of Apple's stock throughout the last two years.

In February, after one such purchase, Buffett praised the iPhone and "sticky," and confirmed that Berkshire had bought more of Apple in 2017 than any other company.

Following the big Q1 purchase, Buffett discussed his Apple strategy in a CNBC interview, in which he famously said he'd love to own 100 percent of Apple.

"We're not buying a stock when we buy Apple, in our minds," Buffett said. "We're buying 5 percent of a business. We buy 100 percent of some businesses, and when they're publicly held we buy 5 percent, but we bring the same thinking to it. We like very much the economics of their activities. And we like very much their management, and the way they think, and the way they act."

Buffett's stake is now up to about 5.1 percent of Apple's shares, according to the SEC filing.

Apple's stock has continued to rise in the months since Buffett's big purchase, hitting a pair of milestones last week. The stock hit the $200 mark on August 1, and the following day Apple became the first company in history to reach a trillion-dollar valuation.
Avieshek

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    smart man indeed!!
    Avieshek
  • Reply 2 of 15
    Hopefully this has paid him back for any losses he made on IBM. 
    Avieshek
  • Reply 3 of 15
    nunzynunzy Posts: 662member
    I enjoy knowing that with every Apple product purchased, Warren Buffett gets richer.

    Apple is owned primarily by institutional investors on Wall Street.  they are the ones who primarily benefit when Apple products are purchased.

    Avieshek
  • Reply 4 of 15
    jdgazjdgaz Posts: 405member
    It just took Buffett a little longer than most to figure out that he should put some cash into Apple. But now that he is there I will hold my shares until he decides to lighten up.
    Avieshek
  • Reply 5 of 15
    nunzy said:
    I enjoy knowing that with every Apple product purchased, Warren Buffett gets richer.

    Apple is owned primarily by institutional investors on Wall Street.  they are the ones who primarily benefit when Apple products are purchased.

    You realize that the people who own the assets managed by "institutional investors" are people like you and me, right?  Vanguard, Fidelity, pension plans, etc.  Sure, the super rich own more shares than I do, but all my retirement funds are managed by "institutional investors."  Whether they are managed funds or index funds, a very large number of them have big stakes in AAPL.  So when Apple does well, I do well (because of my direct AAPL holdings and indirectly because of Apple's influence on the larger market).  
    lkruppRayz2016jasenj1nunzy
  • Reply 6 of 15
    ronnronn Posts: 679member
    It took him long enough. Imagine had he wised up earlier. His stake could have been even larger.
  • Reply 7 of 15
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    Uncle Warren having skin in the game has possibly turned some heads but I’m also reading that financial managers are starting to sing a different tune lately. I don’t know how long this new interest in AAPL will last, probably only until the next supply chain rumor of doom and gloom but it’s nice while it lasts. I do have some AAPL in my retirement IRAs but not that much and only because I browbeat my financial advisor into it.
  • Reply 8 of 15
    ciacia Posts: 267member
    They are making $182 million every quarter just from dividend payments...  8-)
  • Reply 9 of 15
    eightzeroeightzero Posts: 3,134member
    dat be a lotta voting stock
  • Reply 10 of 15
    With Elon Musk hinting that he will take Tesla private, it must be time for Apple to consider this move. Stick two fingers up at Wall St. Apple does not need to raise capital via share issues any more so why are the shares traded at all? Oh yes, the gang of 'Apple is doomed' shorters continue to peddle disaster at every turn just like Tesla.

    Sadly, the premium that they'd need to pay to get 51% of the share capital would be too much even for Apple to stomach.
  • Reply 11 of 15
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    If Buffet wants to own 100% of AAPL, I'd be happy to unload mine for double the current price.
  • Reply 12 of 15
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    With Elon Musk hinting that he will take Tesla private, it must be time for Apple to consider this move. Stick two fingers up at Wall St. Apple does not need to raise capital via share issues any more so why are the shares traded at all? Oh yes, the gang of 'Apple is doomed' shorters continue to peddle disaster at every turn just like Tesla.

    Sadly, the premium that they'd need to pay to get 51% of the share capital would be too much even for Apple to stomach.
    When did Musk "hint" this? 

    UPDATE: Found it...

    https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/tesla-stock-price-jumps-after-report-saudi-arabia-bought-2-billion-stake-2018-8-1027439414
    edited August 2018
  • Reply 13 of 15
    With Elon Musk hinting that he will take Tesla private, it must be time for Apple to consider this move. Stick two fingers up at Wall St. Apple does not need to raise capital via share issues any more so why are the shares traded at all? Oh yes, the gang of 'Apple is doomed' shorters continue to peddle disaster at every turn just like Tesla.

    Sadly, the premium that they'd need to pay to get 51% of the share capital would be too much even for Apple to stomach.
    I'm pretty sure Tim Cook and his friends don't have a trillion+ dollars to invest in taking Apple private.  Remember, a company can't own itself, so Apple can't take itself private.  Some coalition of owners have to have enough cash to buy out all the other investors and then they can remove it from public trading.  It ain't going to happen.
  • Reply 14 of 15
    With Elon Musk hinting that he will take Tesla private, it must be time for Apple to consider this move. Stick two fingers up at Wall St. Apple does not need to raise capital via share issues any more so why are the shares traded at all? Oh yes, the gang of 'Apple is doomed' shorters continue to peddle disaster at every turn just like Tesla.

    Sadly, the premium that they'd need to pay to get 51% of the share capital would be too much even for Apple to stomach.
    I'm pretty sure Tim Cook and his friends don't have a trillion+ dollars to invest in taking Apple private.  Remember, a company can't own itself, so Apple can't take itself private.  Some coalition of owners have to have enough cash to buy out all the other investors and then they can remove it from public trading.  It ain't going to happen.
    And on top of not having a trillion dollars, often when companies like Tesla and Dell go private, it's meant to be short/medium term to get through a difficult phase - a merger+turnaround in Dell's case, early growth phase in Tesla's, or turnaround and resale to a larger company for most software companies bought up by PE - whereas I don't see the endgame for Apple to go private. 
    randominternetperson
  • Reply 15 of 15
    crowleycrowley Posts: 10,453member
    With Elon Musk hinting that he will take Tesla private, it must be time for Apple to consider this move. Stick two fingers up at Wall St. Apple does not need to raise capital via share issues any more so why are the shares traded at all? Oh yes, the gang of 'Apple is doomed' shorters continue to peddle disaster at every turn just like Tesla.

    Sadly, the premium that they'd need to pay to get 51% of the share capital would be too much even for Apple to stomach.
    No.  Apple cannot buy itself.  This gets bandied about way too often.  It is financial nonsense.
    randominternetperson
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