Warren Buffett Berkshire Hathaway has increased its stake in Apple (AAPL) by $10 billion since the beginning of the year, reports 9to5Mac.
Berkshire at the end of 2018 reported it owned “over $40 billion” in the Cupertino firm. CEO Warren Buffett today said that it now owned “$50 billion plus.”
CNBC reports Buffett said he was “pleased” by Apple’s latest earnings report, although Hathaway hasn’t purchased any additional stock since the report was published.
“We haven’t changed our [Apple] holdings,” Buffett told CNBC’s Becky Quick on Thursday, on the eve of the kickoff of Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha this weekend.
Apple shares are up more than 32% this year, including a boost from the iPhone maker’s better-than-expected first-quarter earnings report this week.
“I was pleased with what they reported,” Buffett said, while noting he never makes investment decisions based on a single quarterly report. “What they talked about and reported is consistent with the reason we own $50 billion-plus of Apple.”
While Buffett had once been dismissive of Apple due to its “unpredictability,” Buffet has become more enamored with the company in recent times, saying a year or so ago that he’d like to own more Apple stock, even going as far to say that he’d love to own 100% of the company.
Billionaire Buffett revealed that his conglomerate has been buying Amazon stocks, calling himself “an idiot” for not buying in earlier. “Yeah, I’ve been a fan, and I’ve been an idiot for not buying” Amazon shares, Buffett said.