Warren Buffett’s big bet on Apple just got a whole lot bigger.
The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway told CNBC on Friday that his company bought about 75 million shares of Apple stock during the first three months of the year. That adds to 165 million shares that Berkshire had at the end of last year.
Buffett called Apple an “unbelievable company,” and pointed out that it makes far more profit than any other American corporation.
“If you look at Apple, I think it earns almost twice as much as the second most profitable company in the United States,” CNBC quoted Buffett as saying.
Berkshire Hathaway now owns an estimated 240.3 million Apple shares, currently worth about $42.5 billion USD.
Two years ago, Berkshire surprised investors when it disclosed its first investment of 9.8 million shares in the tech giant. In February, Buffett said the stake grew by about 23 percent since the end of September to roughly 165.3 million shares worth $28 billion USD at the end of 2017.
Some are speculating that Berkshire’s $116 billion USD in cash and equivalents is the reason for the latest investment. It now owns a 4.7% stake in Apple. “Our smiles will broaden when we have redeployed Berkshire’s excess funds into more productive assets,” Buffett wrote in his annual shareholder letter in February.
Buffett’s announcement comes just days after Apple reported quarterly sales and profit that topped analyst estimates on surging services as revenue rose at the fastest pace in more than two years.
