By Nicole Friedman
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (February 21, 2020).
Warren Buffett has lamented his failure in recent years to find
an " elephant-sized acquisition."
But, his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has amassed a $78.5 billion
stake in Apple Inc. since early 2016, based on Berkshire's latest
reported holdings as of the end of 2019.
Apple accounted for about 14% of Berkshire's market
capitalization as of Thursday, more than any other single stock in
its portfolio.
Berkshire spent about $36 billion on its Apple stake, the
company said in its 2018 annual report. That exceeds the roughly
$32.7 billion Berkshire paid to buy Precision Castparts Corp. in
2016, its biggest acquisition of an entire company.
Apple "certainly is an elephant" for Mr. Buffett, said Thomas
Russo, partner at Gardner Russo & Gardner, a longtime holder of
Berkshire shares. "It shows he's certainly willing to swing at a
big fat pitch when it comes across the plate."
Berkshire's enormous bet on the tech giant underscores how Mr.
Buffett's investment approach has changed over the years,
especially as market values have climbed and tech companies have
become more prominent.
Berkshire's stock has underperformed the S&P 500's total
return in the past decade, prompting some investors to question
whether the Omaha, Neb., conglomerate has grown too big to beat the
market. Even after Berkshire plowed tens of billions of dollars
into buying Apple shares, its overall cash pile continued to grow
and hit a record $128 billion as of Sept. 30. Some investors have
agitated for Berkshire to buy back more stock or pay a
dividend.
Berkshire is set to release its 2019 results and Mr. Buffett's
annual letter to shareholders on Saturday. Mr. Buffett's widely
read letters typically touch on a variety of business and investing
topics, in addition to discussing Berkshire's results.
Mr. Buffett, Berkshire's chairman and chief executive, spent his
early investing years trying to buy "cigar butts," or companies
that were selling so far below their value that an investment would
likely be profitable no matter how the company performed. He later
transitioned to focusing on buying well-run companies with strong
competitive advantages at reasonable prices.
Still, Mr. Buffett largely avoided investing in technology
companies for years, saying he didn't understand them.
Mr. Buffett started to study Apple after one of his portfolio
managers, either Ted Weschler or Todd Combs, bought about $1
billion in Apple shares for Berkshire in early 2016.
As he studied the company and questioned his great-grandchildren
about their allegiance to Apple products, Mr. Buffett decided Apple
was a retail company he could understand.
"I didn't go into Apple because it was a tech stock," Mr.
Buffett said at Berkshire's 2018 annual meeting. He cited the
strength of the company's brand and its capital return strategy. "I
don't think that required me to take apart an iPhone or something
and figure out what all the components were or anything. I think
it's much more the nature of consumer behavior," he said.
Mr. Buffett added to Berkshire's Apple holdings aggressively in
2017 and 2018. Berkshire is Apple's second-largest shareholder and
held 5.6% of the company at the end of 2019, according to
FactSet.
In an interview with CNBC last year, Apple Chief Executive Tim
Cook said he viewed Berkshire's investment as a privilege. "The
fact that we've got the ultimate long-term investor in the stock is
incredible," he said.
Berkshire's bet has paid off. Apple's shares soared 86% in 2019
and have climbed another 9.1% so far this year.
"What's surprising is how fast it increased," said Doug Kass,
president of Seabreeze Partners Management Inc. Given the current
size of Berkshire's Apple stake, "it seems to me that it would be
prudent for [Mr. Buffett] to be peeling out of some stock," he
said.
Mr. Buffett has long preferred to hold a concentrated portfolio
of stocks.
In his 1993 letter to shareholders, Mr. Buffett said that
uninformed investors should diversify. But "if you are a
know-something investor...conventional diversification makes no
sense for you," he said. "I cannot understand why an investor of
that sort elects to put money into a business that is his 20th
favorite rather than simply adding that money to his top
choices."
Berkshire sold a small percentage of its Apple holdings between
mid-2018 and the end of 2019, according to securities filings.
Those sales were made by either Mr. Weschler or Mr. Combs, who
manage a fixed amount of money for Berkshire, according to a person
familiar with the investments.
Some of Berkshire's other large investments have stumbled.
Berkshire owns 27% of Kraft Heinz Co., which fell 25% last year and
has slid another 15% this year. Mr. Buffett said last year that
Berkshire and 3G Capital overpaid in 2015 when they helped form
Kraft Heinz.
Berkshire's Class A shares rose 11% in 2019. They closed
Thursday at $342,122, up 0.7% year to date.
Write to Nicole Friedman at nicole.friedman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 21, 2020 02:47 ET (07:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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