Stephen Silver
The "Oracle of Omaha," who was revealed last week to have made another big investment in Apple, indicated that he's looking at continued investment in Apple in the future.
At Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting, Buffett had more to say about his Apple plans.
"[Apple] was a company I liked, a business I liked, very much," Buffett said of Apple in an interview with CNBC. "It was a company I liked, a business I liked, very much, and we could buy a lot of it I clearly like Apple and why buy 'em to hold, and we bought about 5 percent of the company, and I'd like to own 100 percent of it."
Buffett went on to state that "that's the test — would you like to own 100 percent of a company?"
"We're not buying a stock when we buy Apple, in our minds" Buffett continued. "We're buying 5 percent of a business. We buy 100 percent of some businesses, and when they're publicly held we buy 5 percent, but we bring the same thinking to it. We like very much the economics of their activities. And we like very much their management, and the way they think, and the way they act."
Buffett on his Apple stake: We currently own about 5% of the company, "but I'd love to own 100% of it" https://t.co/9SiIuaXfCo pic.twitter.com/A3zsAQfpPu
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) May 7, 2018
Warren Buffett revealed Thursday that his firm, Berkshire Hathaway, had purchased 75 million Apple shares during the first quarter, which raised the investment firm's total position to 240 million shares. The move makes Berkshire the third-largest Apple shareholder, behind Vanguard and BlackRock.
In separate comments at the shareholder meeting over the weekend, reported by Reuters, Buffett both praised Apple's recent share buyback, and had positive things to say about the company's "extremely sticky" products.
"I love the idea of having our 5 percent, or whatever it is, maybe grow to 6 or 7 percent without our laying out a dime," Buffett said of the share buyback. He added that he would buy more shares, if the price were right.
Following reports about Buffett's bet on the company, Apple's stock reached a new all-time high on Friday.
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33 Comments
Warren Buffet is probably behind the plethora of false "Apple is dead because of the IPhone X" stories until their last earnings call. He has accumulated his wealth doing exactly that. Got a bunch of stock cheap and will be unloading it soon for a great profit.
If you are looking for who started the whole "iPhone X is a flop" thing, it was Nikkei, then the Wall Street Journal, then Bloomberg/Mark Gurman. In that order. Other sites (with varying degrees of headline accuracy) just echoed and amplified those three. I love that they were not just wrong, they literally could not have been more wrong. Take note of who lied and who pushed the lie, and don't believe them again (unless you like being fooled).
Those people who are in AAPL for the long haul are enjoying a nice reward for their steady-handedness, egged on by Buffett. He wasn't the only one that saw things clearly and acted precipitously; Apple bought back $25B of their stock in the previous quarter.
If they'd bought all of that $25B of stock at $155.15 (the lowest closing price since January), they'd have made an additional $4.8B by today. And the stock is still undervalued IMO.
To own 100% he needs mine ... make me an offer I can't refuse Warren... ;)
I'm really enjoying how Old Man Buffett is making all the millenial analysts look really stupid. Buffett may not know much about tech but he understands sound investing, at least from my point of view. It always puzzled me why analysts and investors were moaning and groaning about million unit iPhone shortfalls from quarter to quarter when you'd think they should be able to see further than that. Practically anything can hurt a quarter, even the weather, global unrest or flu epidemic. iPhone sales shortfalls do not indicate Apple's overall health by any means. Basing those sales on supply chain data makes numbers even less reliable. These analysts are really stupid and might as well wait for Apple's guidance.
It's so amusing how Buffett's firm was loading up on Apple shares while the gutless were tossing their Apple stock to the wind. I could understand if investors weren't buying Apple, but they should never have been selling on unsubstantiated rumors. Quarter-to-quarter iPhone sales don't scare me because I'm in Apple for the dividends and I'll get them even i the share price drops. I'm always somewhat surprised when the negative news comes out a couple of weeks before earnings and investors start getting antsy. It happens like clockwork so you'd think investors would realize something nefarious is going on. Well, it just goes to show how scared investors really don't think straight if they believe their wealth is at risk. Buffett and crew obviously can relax and see through the temporary chaos.
I'm really glad a conservative investor like Buffet is backing Apple. His buys are based on company fundamentals. Maybe more investors will follow his lead or at least stop being such man-pussies and see that Apple could be much more than just the iPhone company. Honestly, small retail investors need to get a grip on reality. The FANG stocks are not the entire stock market. There are other ways to make money without having to rely on double-digit revenue growth. That can't be depended on from any company to last forever. Just beware of any analyst telling investors to drop Apple to get X stock. That's just criminal advice.