apple (AAPL -1.92%) is the largest stock investment in berkshire hathawaysan’s (BRK.A -1.05%) (BRK.B -0.83%) I keep a close eye on my stock portfolio, but it’s not even close.
At the end of 2023, Berkshire Hathaway owned 905.56 million shares of the iPhone maker’s stock, which was worth about $156 billion in market value as of April 15. Berkshire Hathaway’s investment represents 5.9% of Apple’s ownership and about 43% of Berkshire’s portfolio. For context, his second-largest stock investment in Berkshire, american bankits size is less than a quarter of Apple’s stock.
How did Berkshire’s Apple stock grow?
Berkshire Hathaway first reported Apple stock in its portfolio in the first quarter of 2016. It started as a small investment (for Berkshire), with the company initially spending about $1.1 billion on Apple stock at the time. It was also confirmed that Buffett did not initiate the investment, but that one of his investment managers (Ted Weschler or Todd Combs) pulled the trigger on it first.
However, it is certain that Buffett was heavily involved in the current investment in Apple. Over the next three years, Berkshire accumulated approximately 1 billion shares of Apple stock. As you can see from the current number of shares, they were sold off a little after that, but there was a time when Mr. Buffett was buying up a lot.
Oracle of Omaha Big Winner
In total, Berkshire paid $39.62 per split-adjusted share for Apple stock, which equates to approximately $35.9 billion on a total cost basis. As mentioned earlier, the investment amount now amounts to $156 billion, and in total he will receive more than $120 billion in profits.In percentage terms, this means that Warren Buffett and Berkshire Hathaway were among the biggest winners with an increase of approximately 335% on their investment in Apple (and of The biggest winner in terms of dollars earned in the legendary investor’s career.
Bank of America is an advertising partner of The Motley Fool’s Ascent. Matt Frankel holds positions at Bank of America and Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple, Bank of America, and Berkshire Hathaway. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
