Apple Inc’s stock soar on Friday post Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc announced that it bought an additional 75 million shares of the iPhone maker in the first three months of 2018, according to a Reuters report.
Buffett’s increased stake, which was confirmed by a representative of the billionaire investor, pushed Apple’s shares up as much as 4.2 percent to $184.25, taking the company’s market value to about $906 billion.
Apple declined to comment on Friday, said Reuters.
“If you look at Apple, I think it earns almost twice as much as the second most profitable company in the United States,” Buffett told CNBC, which first reported the news on Thursday.
Friday’s rise was the stock’s second significant gain this week after the Cupertino, California-based company surprised Wall Street on Tuesday with resilient iPhone sales and quarterly results that topped expectations said Reuters.
Buffett’s commitment to Apple over the past two years has surprised many, given his historical aversion to companies associated with the technology sector.
“I think Apple was much more of a consumer products business,” Buffett had said last May in a Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholders meeting.
Berkshire’s initial investment in Apple was small, suggesting it was made by one of Buffett’s investment deputies. But with the latest stake purchase, it has grown to a massive 240.3 million shares worth $42.5 billion.
In February, Berkshire said its Apple stake grew by about 23 percent since the end of September to roughly 165.3 million shares.
Recently, Berkshire almost sold out its entire investment in IBM Corp and at the same time bought more Apple shares.
“They are two different types of decisions. And I was wrong on the first one (IBM), and we’ll find out whether I’m right or wrong on the second (Apple),” Buffett had said a year ago.
