Berkshire, Buffett More Than Double Stake in Apple -- Update
February 27 2017 - 8:44AM
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.
The recent investment has brought Berkshire's position to about
133 million shares, the bulk of which was bought at Mr. Buffett's
direction. 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. Buffett 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.
Speaking more broadly on the economy, Mr. Buffett said that the
market does not appear to be in bubble territory and predicted that
the economy will be better off four years from now. "Stocks
actually are on the cheap side," he said.
He also offered up some political commentary, praising President
Donald Trump's pick of Rex Tillerson for Secretary of State as "the
kind of person I would choose." He said Mr. Trump's first term in
office should be judged by his record on keeping the U.S. safe from
weapons of mass destruction, economic growth and shrinking income
inequality. Still, Mr. Buffett, who backed Democrat Hillary Clinton
in 2016, said even if Mr. Trump succeeds on those fronts it is
"unlikely" he would vote to re-elect Mr. Trump.
Write to Nicole Friedman at nicole.friedman@wsj.com and Joshua
Jamerson at joshua.jamerson@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 27, 2017 08:29 ET (13:29 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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