Warren Buffett has announced that his investment firm Berkshire Hathaway has purchased 120 million additional Apple shares since January 1, drastically increasing its stake in the tech giant.
It’s a big vote of confidence in Apple, whose stock climbed during regular trading hours on Wednesday following the news. Thanks to the buying spree, Berkshire Hathaway’s holdings in the Silicon Valley giant have now more than doubled to 133 million shares– worth about $17 billion– since the end of last year, making Apple the firm’s second-largest equity holding. Buffett now owns about 2.5% of outstanding Apple shares.
“Apple strikes me as having quite a sticky product, and an enormously useful product to people that use it” Buffett said about the enormously successful iPhone to CNBC, explaining the investment and expressing confidence in the company. “It just has that quality. It gets built into their lives.”
The billionaire investor, who doesn’t own an iPhone, is famous for eschewing tech investments in favor of blue-chip companies like Coca Cola. But in Apple’s case, he praised not only the popularity of its products, but also the leadership of CEO Tim Cook, saying that the iPhone maker was likely to reach a trillion dollar valuation before Berkshire Hathaway.
Cook responded positively to the news at Apple’s annual shareholder meeting on Tuesday, stating he was “very proud” that Buffett had invested in his company. “I think what’s good for Apple is to have long term shareholders,” Cook said. “We’re very proud that Berkshire Hathaway is now a shareholder because they tend to be a long shareholder.”
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