Warren Buffet Says He Wants to Own 100% of Apple

With a net worth of $83 billion, there’s no denying the fact that business magnate Warren Buffett knows how to make a sound investment. And if there’s one company that Buffet has shown a particular interest in over the past few years, it’s definitely Cupertino-based tech giant Apple.

Last week, CNBC reported that he bought a staggering 75 million shares in Apple at the start of the year, which is on top of the 120 million shares he scooped up in 2017.

However, this doesn’t seem to be enough for the Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO. On Monday, he told CNBC that he wants to own all of the firm’s shares.

“I clearly like Apple. We buy them to hold. We bought about 5 percent of the company. I’d love to own 100 percent of it. … We like very much the economics of their activities. We like very much the management and the way they think,” he admitted.

Speaking after his company’s weekend-long shareholder event, Buffet suggested that the iPhone maker is a worthy and reliable investment.

“When I buy Apple, I know that Apple is going to repurchase a lot of shares. We own about 5 percent,” he said.

“But I know I don’t have to do a thing and probably in a couple of years we’ll own 6 percent without laying out another dollar.”

“Well, I love the idea of having 5 percent go to 6 percent. The cheaper the stock is the more they will get for their money. There is no reason at all for me to encourage other people to buy Apple.”

In a separate interview with the broadcaster, he called Apple “unbelievable”. The billionaire said: “I think it earns almost twice as much as the second most profitable company in the United States.”

Although many analysts predicted that Apple would be affected by declining iPhone sales, this didn’t stop Buffet from buying more shares. He sees Apple as a steady, long-term business opportunity.

“The idea that you’re going to spend loads of time trying to guess how many iPhone X … are going to be sold in a 3 month period totally misses the point. It’s like worrying about the number of BlackBerrys 10 years ago,” he added.

“Nobody buys a farm based on whether they think it’s going to rain next year. They buy it because they think it’s a good investment over 10 or 20 years.”