What you need to know
- Warren Buffett sold off some of his Apple stocks last year.
- In a recent company meeting he has now admitted this was "probably a mistake".
Billionaire investor and Berkshire Hathaway chief Warren Buffett has admitted selling off some of his Apple stock last year was "probably a mistake."
At the 2021 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders meeting this weekend, Buffet spoke about the decision to sell off around $11 billion worth of Apple stock in the fourth quarter. From Business Insider:
"I sold some stock last year," the famed investor said at Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting on Saturday. "That was probably a mistake."
The company is Apple's largest shareholder with a stake of around 5.4%, and Apple is by far the biggest holding in the BH portfolio, the report notes it has tripled its money on a 2016 investment of $35 billion. Despite the sell-off it still holds more than $100 billion, shares that will pay a reported $791 million in dividends this year according to estimates.
Not the only person to have underestimated Apple in recent months, Goldman Sachs recently admitted defeat on its 'sell' rating of Apple, upgrading its stock rating to 'neutral'. From that report:
Goldman Sachs' has upgraded its Apple stock rating to 'neutral' after more than a year of labeling it as 'sell' in the wake of the Cupertino Company's bumper earnings announcement Wednesday.From Yahoo Finance:After a blowout quarter from tech giant Apple, Goldman Sachs' long-time bearish analyst covering the stock is admitting defeat.A note from GS analyst Rod Hall reportedly stated:We are upgrading our rating from Sell to Neutral after Apple posted another large beat and implied a raise vs. our June revenue expectations. Our original view that the iPhone cycle would disappoint in the midst of COVID was clearly wrong. Not only has Apple done better than we expected on iPhone during the cycle but Mac and iPad have also materially outperformed our forecasts
Driven by the success of devices like the iPhone 12, Apple's best iPhone in recent memory, Apple's stock has grown by 86% since it was added to Goldman's Americas Sell List in April 2020
