Much before the gloomy revenue guidance given out by tech giant Apple Inc, world-known investor Warren Buffett had dumped about $800 million worth of Apple stock in the last quarter, reports said citing SEC filings.
Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway sold off 3.7 million shares during the between between October and December 2019 at a time when Apple's share price was rising at 30% from $219 to $294. It was a robust earnings quarter for the tech giant.
Escaped Coronavirus outbreak impact
While the coronavirus outbreak was still unknown and Apple was one of the top gainers in the Wall Street, the investment wizard had surprisingly sold his shares, though Apple remained one of his favorites. However, his firm still owns around $72 billion worth of Apple shares, or 5.6% of the total shares, while Apple accounts for more than 32% of Berkshire Hathaway's overall portfolio.
Though a latecomer, Berkshire Hathaway which resisted tech shares for long, had bought 9.8 million Apple shares in 2016 at $1 billion valued at around $100 each at the time, almost four years after it made its first tech buy into IBM.
Reluctant buyer
In fact, in 2012 Buffett was reported to have said "the chances of being way wrong in IBM are probably less, at least for us, than the chances of being way wrong in Google or Apple... I just don't know how to value them."
His pal and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who is the founder of Microsoft, holds through his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust, $12.5 billion worth of Berkshire Hathaway stock, or 2.25% of the firm's portfolio. It means Gates owned $1.8 billion invested in Apple, which is essentially a rival to his own firm Microsoft.
