With the past six weeks' surging stock price, Warren Buffett's holding of the company's stock has reached a market cap of $169 billion, higher than the 455 companies in the S&P 500 index. $Apple (AAPL.US)$According to documents, as of the end of March this year, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway held about 790 million shares of Apple stock, worth $135 billion. However, since then, Apple's stock price has surged by 25%, reaching a record $214 at Thursday's close, putting the company's market cap at $3.29 trillion, slightly higher than Microsoft.
Financial website MarketBeat's data shows that except for the top 45 companies in the S&P 500 index, Buffett's holding of Apple stock is worth more than all other companies. In other words, if Berkshire Hathaway's holdings of Apple shares were treated as a listed company, its market cap would exceed Verizon ($167 billion), American Express ($160 billion), IBM ($155 billion), Uber ($148 billion), Nike ($142 billion) and many other blue chip companies.
This quarter, the value of Berkshire Hathaway's holding of Apple positions increased by about $34 billion. This reflects investors' more optimistic sentiment towards the stock market and the economy as a whole, as well as a new round of discussion around Apple following the embrace of AI tools like ChatGPT this week.
However, it is worth noting that Buffett and his team reduced their bet on Apple by 13% in the previous quarter. They previously held 905 million shares of stock, worth $194 billion at Thursday's close. This number is higher than the market cap of Accenture ($189 billion), Cisco ($184 billion), as well as Disney and McDonald's (both $183 billion).
Buffett explained the reason for reducing Apple stock at Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting in May. He hopes to realize some of his profits because he expects the US government to raise taxes to address its ballooning debt. He also added that holding cash is not the worst idea when the global economy is facing challenges.
In addition, Buffett may also be cautious about overreliance on Apple. As of the end of March, Apple's holdings accounted for more than 40% of Berkshire Hathaway's $336 billion stock portfolio, nearly one-fifth of its $876 billion market cap.
In addition, Buffett may also have a cautious attitude towards over-reliance on Apple. As of the end of March, Apple's holdings accounted for more than 40% of Berkshire Hathaway's $336 billion stock investment portfolio, or nearly 1/5 of Berkshire Hathaway's $876 billion market cap.
Edited by Jeffrey