The Mac Observer:
Warren Buffett bought some 5.41 million shares of Apple during the June quarter, according to regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The investment cost more than half a billion dollars, and represents a 55% increase in Berkshire Hathaway’s stake in Apple.
Mr. Buffett’s position puts him at odds with some other big investors. Reuters noted that David Tepper and Leon Cooperman recently began paring back on their position in $AAPL. Hedge funds have also reduced their positions in Apple as Apple faced its first year-over-year decrease in revenues in 13 years.
To be more accurate, Buffett’s company, Berkshire Hathaway, made the purchase. It makes a difference because, while Buffet has been personally critical of technology stocks, Berkshire Hathaway has recently hired a couple of tech fund managers who are much more bullish on Apple. That’s likely what happened here.
We’ll be hearing more about this.
I’ve been a long-time admirer of Warren Buffett and occasional “owner” of Berkshire, and have noted Buffett’s deprecations of AAPL as a stock. These universally came when Apple’s stock price was very high, whereas at this point it’s almost unbelievably low.
I do believe it’s probably Buffett’s lieutenants, and not Buffett, who have made this particular purchase. Nevertheless a strong vote of confidence and, I hope, (eventually), a spectacularly successful investment.
Buffett plays a long game.
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“Buffett’s deprecations of AAPL as a stock”
“Deprecations” is an overstatement of Buffett’s historical position on Apple/AAPL.
WB has always been candid about the fact that (certain) technology companies are not squarely in his wheelhouse. As such, he avoided these investments.
But much has changed. i.e., AAPL is now an income stock.
“when events change, I change my mind. What do you do?” – Dr. Samuelson, Nobel Prize in economics.
You would do well to pay attention to the Oracle of Omaha. Hard to deny those dividends.
Deprecation might be a bit strong with regard to his specific comments about Apple, but Buffett has certainly deprecated high-P/E stocks as a whole, and Apple was squarely in that group for a while. His comments regarding Apple’s valuation around that time were always diplomatic, but the subtext always seemed pretty clear to me.
I agree that Apple is now a perfect Berkshire stock.
By the way, if you ever want to read a caricature of Buffett’s shareholder letters, just read Jeff Bezos’ shareholder letters.