Warren Buffett once said that he does not know enough about the technology industry, so he avoids technology stocks when investing. But since 2016, he has started to buy Apple shares, holding more than 5% of the shares two years later. In just six years, the current book profit has exceeded 100 billion US dollars (about HK$781.7 billion). Although this move goes against his usual investment principles, it has become the best investment he has made in 10 years, avoiding the impact of the new crown epidemic.
According to foreign media reports, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway started buying Apple shares in 2016, and by 2018, its shareholding ratio exceeded 5%. At that time, the market value reached 36 billion US dollars (about 281.4 billion Hong Kong dollars). With Apple’s stock price soaring, the stock market gods bet that Apple’s market value has soared to more than 160 billion US dollars (about 1,250.8 billion Hong Kong dollars), and it took only 6 years to make a book profit of more than 100 billion US dollars.
Some market analysts believe that Buffett has ushered in his “Coca-Cola moment” with Apple. Buffett has been buying Coca-Cola since 1988, and now the consumer giant’s stock has soared more than 2,000%, and Berkshire still owns 400 million shares, making it the fourth-largest stake. Apple, like Coca-Cola, rose sharply in the first five to seven years of Buffett’s purchase of the company’s stock.
Under the epidemic, Berkshire’s other investment projects, insurance and energy have suffered a huge impact, and Apple has become a “life-saving straw”. Owning Apple has helped Berkshire play a key role during the Covid-19 pandemic, offsetting huge hits to other investments, and Buffett, now 91, has become a huge Apple fan. By the end of 2021, Berkshire’s shareholding in Apple is still as high as 5.43%, and over the years, it has received stable dividends, averaging about US$775 million (about HK$6 billion) per year.
Data and picture sources:CNBC
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