Apple shares continue to rise – yesterday again by 2.2 percent. The company currently has a stock market value of 2.02 trillion US dollars. This also has implications for the composition of the portfolio of a major shareholder of the group. Billionaire and one-time richest man in the world Warren Buffett now owns over $115 billion in Apple stock. That means that a good quarter of his total holdings – or that of his investment firm Berkshire Hathaway – consists of Apple shares.
A lot of money in cash
Since Berkshire Hathaway continues to store gross amounts of money in cash – around $150 billion – this means that Apple as well as cash account for over half of the Buffett investment firm’s market value, which currently stands at around 500 billion. At the same time, the rest of the investments the company has made – in Coca Cola or banks like Goldman Sachs, for example – are said to be worth less than $240 billion, writes the business blog BusinessInsider – although there generated sales of more than $ 250 billion last year.
Fear that Berkshire Hathaway is now so heavily dependent on Apple doesn’t seem to be something Buffett and his team are worried about. Most recently, in February, the investor had praised the iPhone and Mac manufacturer’s business in the highest terms. "It is probably the best business I know in the world", The investor, who is now almost 90 years old, has long been considered skeptical about investments in the technology market.
Good quarterly figures
Apple has had an excellent run on the US technology stock exchange NASDAQ in recent months. Shares up nearly 60 percent this year as markets believe Apple has weathered Corona crisis well. The company recently surprised with very decent quarterly figures and was able to benefit from the trend towards home offices, for example.