Warren Buffett’s stake in Apple swells to over $50 billion

Warren Buffett once said
he’d love to own 100% of Apple.
AP

• Berkshire
  Hathaway purchased more Apple shares in the first quarter,
  according to a regulatory filing. 
• Its investment is now worth over $50 billion, and
  received a boost as Apple’s market cap crossed the $1 trillion
  milestone. 
• The conglomerate owned about 246.5 million shares, or
  about 5.1% of Apple, as of June 30.
• The share purchases came amid speculation over how
  Berkshire will deploy a growing mountain of
  cash. 

Warren
Buffett‘s Berkshire Hathaway can’t seem to get enough of
Apple. 

A
regulatory filing released on Saturday showed that the
conglomerate added 2.67 million shares to its stake in the first
quarter, which was worth nearly $50 billion as of June 30.
Berkshire Hathaway owned approximately 246.5 million shares at
the time, or 5.1% of the company’s outstanding shares. 

Assuming Berkshire Hathaway hasn’t bought or sold more share
since then, the stake was worth $51.3 billion in early trading on
Monday, making it by far the most valuable slice of any company
Buffett is invested in. 

Buffett’s stake certainly received a boost last week as Apple
became the first US company to
top $1 trillion in market cap. The stock rallied to the magic
$207.05 price after Apple beat Wall Street’s expectations for
second-quarter earnings. 

Berkshire Hathaway is the third-largest shareholder in Apple,
behind Vanguard and BlackRock, data compiled by Bloomberg shows.

Earlier this year, Buffett told
CNBC that he would “love to own 100 percent” of Apple. He
added, “we like very much the management, and the way they
think, and the way they act.”

Berkshire first disclosed its stake in the iPhone maker in 2016,
and subsequent
announcements of more buying have lifted Apple’s stock
price.  

Berkshire’s additional stake was purchased amid speculation over
how the company will use its growing cash pile. Its
second-quarter earnings results, also released on Saturday,
showed that its
cash and cash equivalents swelled to $111.1 billion during
the quarter. 

Buffett said in his most recent
shareholder letter that he was eager to make deals, but
couldn’t find businesses with “sensible” purchase prices. 

In the interim, Buffett is happy to scoop up more Apple
shares. 

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