Lucas Jackson/Reuters
Warren Buffett’s Apple stake has tripled in value to more than $100 billion as the iPhone maker’s stock has reached new heights.
The famed investor and Berkshire Hathaway CEO spent about $35 billion to acquire 250 million Apple shares from 2016 to 2018, according to his 2019 shareholder letter. Buffett has cashed out some of that holding since then and owned 245 million shares at last count.
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Apple stock has climbed about 42% this year, boosting the value of Buffett’s stake by $30 billion in the past seven months alone.
Bill Brewster, an investor who runs Sullimar Capital Group and cohosts the “Value: After Hours” podcast, recently told Business Insider that Buffett’s Apple bet was “one of the best investments ever.”
Apple is by far the largest position in Berkshire’s stock portfolio, worth more than four times its second-largest holding, a $25 billion stake in Bank of America.
Berkshire’s market capitalization is about $476 billion, implying its 5.7% stake in Apple accounts for more than a fifth of its value.
But Berkshire boasted $137 billion in cash and short-term investments at the end of last quarter. It also racked up $255 billion in revenue and another $73 billion in investment gains last year, generating $82 billion in net earnings.
The value of Berkshire’s Apple stake relative to the rest of its portfolio and its market cap underscores the extent to which investors are prizing tech companies and neglecting more staid businesses such as banks, insurers, and railroads.
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