Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett's holding company, owns a portfolio of around 45 stocks. But those are far from equally weighted. Several stocks, like drink maker Diageo and financial company Jefferies, barely register above 0% of the entire portfolio. But Apple (AAPL 0.20%) accounts for an outsize portion of the total.
Almost half of the total portfolio
Apple weighs in at 44.7% of the entire Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio, equivalent to $185 billion. It owns nearly 790 million shares of Apple stock, or a 5.1% stake in the company.
Buffett recently grouped Apple together with American Express and Coca-Cola as stocks he plans to hold forever. "Unless something really extraordinary happens," he said at the 2024 annual shareholder meeting, "we will own Apple, American Express and Coca-Cola when Greg takes over this place," referring to Greg Abel, who is next in line to lead the company.
Apple has all of the qualities Buffett frequently extols in his shareholder letters.
It has strong management, with a seamless transition from founder and former CEO Steve Jobs to current CEO Tim Cook. It sells excellent products and has a competitive advantage, and customers are willing to pay premium prices for access to these products. It also has varied revenue streams in its broad array of products and services, and it plays a large role in the global economy, with continuing opportunities to do so. It also pays a dividend.
When Buffett first bought Apple stock in 2016, it was trading at a low P/E ratio. That's increased over the past few years, but Buffett hasn't sold it, indicating that he still thinks it's a good value at the current price.
Apple stock has been feeling some pressure this year, and it's been knocked down from the most valuable company on the market to second place. But that's short-term, and the long-term thesis, which is how Buffett views things, looks strong.
