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Berkshire Hathaway takes a bigger bite of Apple, dumps IBM

Berkshire Hathaway takes a bigger bite of Apple, dumps IBM

May 5, 2018

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway bought an additional 75 million shares of Apple in the first quarter of 2018, while dumping its remaining stake in IBM, said a Bloomberg May 4, 2018 report (Buffett Buys a Further 75 Million Apple Shares, Sells Out of IBM).

The report quoted the Berkshire Hathaway chairman as having said in a CNBC interview that IBM “is an unbelievable company”.

“The Apple purchase, which would have cost between $11 billion and $14 billion, adds to the almost 170 million shares that Berkshire Hathaway owned at the end of 2017, when it was already Buffett’s biggest shareholding. The added stake would see Berkshire overtake State Street Corp to become Apple’s third-largest investor, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The move is paying off so far, with Apple shares climbing to a record,” said the Bloomberg report.

The report added: “Buffett said he was “almost certain” that Berkshire owns zero shares in IBM after sales in the first quarter. The company held about 2 million shares of the technology firm at the end of 2017. Buffett has sold down his stake over the past year after saying his thesis was flawed when he plowed more than $10 billion into IBM in 2011.”