Berkshire, Buffett More Than Double Stake in Apple
February 27 2017 - 07:56AM
Dow Jones News
By Nicole Friedman and Joshua Jamerson
Warren Buffett said his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. more than
doubled its stake in Apple Inc. since the start of the new year,
making the Silicon Valley giant one of Berkshire's biggest equity
holdings.
Berkshire's recent investment has brought Mr. Buffet's personal
buying in Apple to about 123 million shares,* and one of
Berkshire's portfolio managers holds about 10 million; Berkshire
owned about 57 million shares at the end of 2016. Mr. Buffett made
the comments Monday morning on CNBC.
The recent buying would bring the value of Berkshire's stake in
Apple to roughly $18 billion.
The comments come after the billionaire investor released his
widely read letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders on Saturday,
in which he reasserted his belief in his own ability to pick
winners and losers. Mr. Buffett has traditionally shied away from
tech stocks, saying that he doesn't understand the business, but he
says Apple is a consumer product that he understands.
"People have this incredible stickiness with the product," Mr.
Buffett said of the iPhone. Mr. Buffet said while that doesn't mean
Apple is shielded from disruption by new technology, "the
continuity of the product is huge and the degree to which their
lives center around it is huge. And that's a really nice franchise
to have in a consumer product."
Apple shares rose 0.4% to $137.2 in premarket trading.
Write to Nicole Friedman at nicole.friedman@wsj.com and Joshua
Jamerson at joshua.jamerson@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 27, 2017 07:41 ET (12:41 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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