Berkshire Buffett

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Apple - >>> Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway bought 75 million Apple shares in first quarter


By Mike Murphy

May 5, 2018


https://www.marketwatch.com/story/warren-buffetts-berkshire-hathaway-bought-75-million-apple-shares-in-first-quarter-2018-05-03



Company already owned 3.3% of Apple’s shares outstanding

Warren Buffett’s company loaded up on Apple Inc. stock in the first quarter, buying a whopping 75 million shares, CNBC reported Thursday night.

That’s in addition to the 165.3 million Apple shares US:AAPL that Berkshire Hathaway US:BRK owned at the end of 2017 — about 3.3% of shares outstanding at the time. As of the end of last year, Apple was Berkshire’s second-largest holding, valued at about $28 billion, behind its stake in Wells Fargo & Co. US:WFC valued at about $29 billion. The latest buying spree likely put Apple in first place.

“It is an unbelievable company,” Buffett told CNBC. “If you look at Apple, I think it earns almost twice as much as the second most profitable company in the United States.”

“Over the last year we’ve bought more Apple than anything else,” Buffett told CNBC in February.

Apple shares rallied 3.3% by midday Friday. On Thursday, the shares closed at $177, up 4.5% year to date and 20.3% in the past year, compared with the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s US:DJIA 3.9% loss this year and 14.2% gain over the past year.

Berkshire’s class B shares ended Thursday at $191.61, and are down 3.3% this year, though up 15% over the past year.

Read: Here’s how Warren Buffett’s stock picks for Berkshire Hathaway have performed in 2018

The latest purchase of Apple stock was reported ahead of an interview with Buffett scheduled to air Friday morning on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

Berkshire Hathaway will hold its annual investors’ meeting Saturday in Omaha, Neb.

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