Berkshire Hathaway bought 75 million additional Apple shares in the first three months of 2018, CEO Warren Buffett told CNBC on Thursday, signaling the billionaire investor's continuing confidence in Apple.
In February last year, Buffett revealed that his holding company held around 133 million shares in Apple prior to the company's record-breaking earnings results on January 31, 2017, worth over $17 billion at the time. Today it holds 240.3 million shares worth $42.5 billion.
"If you look at Apple, I think it earns almost twice as much as the second most profitable company in the United States," Buffett told CNBC.
Historically, Buffett has shied away from investing in technology companies, but the business magnate has suggested he sees Apple more as a consumer company. Reuters reports that Berkshire's latest Apple investment serves as a way of reducing the corporate group's $116 billion in cash and equivalents, without having to acquire a whole company.
Apple posted revenue of $61.1 billion and net quarterly profit of $13.8 billion in the first quarter of the year, up from revenue of $52.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $11.0 billion in the year-ago quarter. Apple said it will start a new share buyback authorization of $100 billion following the record revenue and profit numbers.
Top Rated Comments
I realize Apple might not perform like the FANG stocks do when it comes to share gains. Apple doesn't appear to have any double-digit growth in revenue. Maybe those times are gone forever. Still, there's no reason for analysts to be telling people to dump Apple stock and buy FANG stocks. Saying something like that is so stupid. Apple gives out pretty decent dividends. Most companies don't have double-digit revenue growth so it's like analysts are telling investors not to invest in companies that can't provide double-digit revenue growth and that's most of the companies on the planet.
For the most part, Buffett seems like a rather smart and conservative investor who buys stock based on a company's fundamentals instead of just quarterly sales. He seems like he's into Apple for the long haul and I hope he is. It will be interesting to see if Apple is able to outlast any of the FANG stocks that Wall Street constantly praises.
If a company needed help making decsisons, Buffet wouldn’t take a second look at them.
Please bring back the Mac Pro. Please tell your company (AAPL) that they cannot keep ignoring those beautiful Macs. Please tell your company to make Siri a lot better, and more competitive. We gave up on Cook, but maybe you could Make Apple Great Again, sir! Thank you for listening. :p