THE APPLE OF HIS EYE
Legendary investor Warren Buffett says he would ‘love to own’ 100 percent of the tech company
It’s no secret that Warren Buffett likes Apple. Actually, “like” might be too mild of a word to describe Buffett’s affection for the world’s most valuable company.
Just last week, Buffett disclosed that Berkshire Hathaway bought 75 million shares of Apple stock during the first quarter of 2018. Those purchases give Berkshire 241.7 million Apple shares that are worth about $44.8 billion based on the $185.30 price where Apple’s stock traded on Monday.
That amount of shares gives Buffett, and his investment company Berkshire, about a 5 percent ownership stake in Apple. But why stop at just 5 percent?
In an interview with CNBC on Monday, Buffett said due to factors such as Apple’s management team and “the economics of their activities,” he wouldn’t mind owning even more of Apple. Like all of it.
“I’d love to own 100 percent of it!” Buffett said Monday.
Now, before Wall Street and investors start worrying about whether Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook and the
company’s board of directors are about to face an unsolicited takeover bid from Buffett, keep in mind that Buffett chuckled after his “100 percent” statement. Buffett may be rich, but even he doesn’t have enough dough to straight up buy all of Apple’s stock.
Not when the company has a market capitalization of almost $942 billion, which is where Apple was valued Monday as it continued to edge closer toward becoming the first company in history worth $1 trillion.
From what he said on CNBC, Buffett seems to be fine with the Apple holdings he has right now.
“We’re not buying a stock when we buy Apple,” Buffett said. “We’re buying five percent of a business.”