Berkshire Hathaway — the investment firm belonging to Warren Buffett, one of Apple’s biggest cheerleaders in recent years — reduced its stake in the Cupertino tech giant last quarter.
According to a regulatory filing made this week, in Q4 2020, Berkshire Hathaway cut 6% of its Apple shares. By contrast it kept its Amazon shares steady, while growing its stake in T-Mobile by a massive 117%.
One of the things that always surprised me was how, compared to some of his Silicon Valley peers, Steve Jobs’ net worth during his life paled in comparison to some of his contemporaries.
When Jobs died in late 2011, his net worth was reported as being $10.2 billion. That’s an enormous amount of money, but it was a drop in the ocean next to Bill Gates’ $56 billion that year, and less than Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page’s $19.8 billion apiece, Michael Dell’s $14.6 billion, and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg’s $13.5 billion.
Had Jobs had the same share arrangement today, however, it would be a very different story.
Apple has sold $14 billion in bonds in order to tap into current cheap borrowing costs, Bloomberg reports.
This money will reportedly be used for buying back stock and paying dividends, as well as giving Apple more working capital.
Apple has come a long way this century alone. In 2001, Apple had yet to release the iPod, iTunes, the iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch. While the turnaround under Steve Jobs was underway, it was still in its earliest stages.
What has Apple’s ascension in the years since done to AAPL’s share price? On January 28, 2001, Apple — adjusted for splits and dividends — was trading at 30 cents a share. On January 28, 2021, Apple closed at $137.09. That’s an astonishing 45,697.7% increase!
Sometimes, when Apple passes a major financial milestone, I’ll have a pang of regret at not having invested all the money I could lay my hands on on Apple back in the mid-1990s.
But that’s far from the worst missed opportunity involving Apple investment. A new article for Fast Company tells the story of seven early investors who sold their AAPL holdings on the day of the company’s IPO in December 1980.
When Apple holds its fiscal Q4 2020 earnings call on Oct. 29, can the company deliver another pandemic miracle?
We’ll all find out at 2 p.m. Pacific that day, when Apple live-streams its earnings call. (Actually, we’ll undoubtedly find out a half-hour earlier than that, when Cupertino issues its press release outlining its quarterly results).
Following last quarter’s record-setting results, Wall Street will be waiting with bated breath to see if Apple once again found a way to spin gold amid the economic disaster caused by COVID-19.
Tim Cook may well stay at the helm at Apple until at least 2025, according to SEC filings which detail the stock options that will vest in that time. Cook will receive 333,987 units of restricted stock options, vesting in thirds beginning April 1, 2023.
“For the first time in nearly a decade, we are awarding Tim a new stock grant that will vest over time in recognition of his outstanding leadership and with great optimism for Apple’s future as he carries these efforts forward,” Apple’s board of directors told Reuters.
After seeming to defy the general COVID-19 downturn, tech stocks have taken a dip as of late. Loup Ventures’ tech analyst Gene Munster thinks there is going to be a split in future fortunes — with some soaring back up to previous highs and others, well, not.
Apple, he believes, is going to be a big winner. And from my calculations he thinks it could be just a couple of years from another major financial milestone.
Apple has lost more than $500 billion in market cap since the start of this month, CNBC reported over the weekend.
To put that figure in perspective, it’s slightly more than the market cap it took Apple its first 36 years of existence to climb to. (Apple only passed $500 billion in 2012, the year after Tim Cook took over as CEO.)
Apple is no longer the world’s most valuable public company after it was overtaken by Saudi oil company Aramco. Apple’s share price has dropped 17% since it peaked in early September.
Having passed the $2 trillion market cap milestone last month, Apple has now dropped to $1.915 trillion. Apple and Aramco are the only two companies in the world to to have achieved valuations of $2 trillion.
Apple shares shot up more than 3% Monday following a 4-for-1 stock split that took place after the market closed Friday.
This morning, every Apple shareholder who owned one share at Friday’s closing price of $499.23 owned four shares, each with one-quarter that value ($124.81). After soaring as high as $131 in trading Monday, AAPL closed at $129.04, up $4.23 (3.39%) for the day.
Apple shares could jump by more than a third in the next year, following next week’s 4-to-1 stock split, an analyst for social trading brokerage company eToro claims.
Alongside Tesla, which will undergo a 5-to-1 stock split on the same day, Adam Vettese suggests Apple’s stock split “could act as a tailwind” for the value of its shares.
Apple’s market cap has surged by $600 billion in the past 20 days. That’s nearly the equivalent of Tesla’s $394 billion and Netflix’s $218 billion market caps combined, Above Avalon analyst Neil Cybart points out on Twitter.
Apple’s brain-melting march beyond a $2 trillion market cap might be just the start. Find out how high AAPL stock might go (and why all this success might have Apple fans tired of winning).
Plus, we’ve got more Apple rumors, this time concerning a potential cheaper Apple Watch and more! And Epic Games unleashes yet another creative salvo in its battle royale with Apple. (Surprise, surprise — Cupertino fires back in court.)
You can read all these stories, plus plenty of Apple how-tos and product reviews, in this week’s free issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. Download it now!
Apple passed $2 trillion this week, but one bullish Apple analyst doesn’t think the stock is anywhere near its limits. In a note published Friday, Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote to clients that he thinks Apple has “a lot of gasoline” left in the tank.
Ives predicted Apple could reach as high as $600. Currently, AAPL is trading at $473.10, defying the overall market with its upward trajectory.
Apple hit a massive $2 trillion valuation early Wednesday, becoming the first publicly traded U.S. company in history to hit this milestone.
Apple needed to climb to $467.77 per share to reach the $2 trillion valuation, according to CNBC. It reached a high of $468.09 in early trading Wednesday. On Thursday, it climbed even higher to $469.17.
Apple hit a new all-time high in early trading Monday, taking the company tantalizingly close to the $2 trillion mark. AAPL rose to $464.35 on Monday before dropping to close at $458.43 (down $1.20, or 0.26%).
Apple’s current market cap (the share price multiplied by the number of outstanding shares) currently stands at $1.96 trillion. If Apple passes the $2 trillion milestone, it will become the first publicly traded company in history to do so.
This week on The CultCast: New Apple hardware is incoming, and thanks to a reliable leaker, we might know the release dates for iPhone 12, Apple Watch Series 6 and more. We’ll tell you what to expect. Plus, it’s Apple stock adventure, part 2! I talk about my massive Apple stock purchase, including how much I spent, why I’m buying in now, and how much my investment is now worth. We talk real numbers!
And if you’ve been thinking about getting a new Mac with the butterfly keyboard, don’t do it until you hear this episode, cause with COVID-19 shutdowns, keyboard repairs are now a total nightmare.
Our thanks to Netgear for supporting this episode. The Netgear Orbi WiFi 6 router gives you ultra-fast speeds and wider coverage throughout your home. Learn why Orbi are so insanely powerful at Netgear.com/bestwifi6.
Warren Buffett, the legendary investor and big-time Apple booster, now has a share of the company worth upward of $100 billion.
Even more impressive? Buffett’s firm Berkshire Hathaway reportedly spent on around $35 billion to secure its 5.7% stake in Apple. That’s a pretty darn great return on investment — and Apple’s only climbing higher.
Apple shares hit a new all-time high Friday on the back of the company’s shockingly good Q3 earnings. AAPL closed up 10.47% at $425.04, fueled by Thursday’s record-breaking report.
Friday’s surge gives Apple a market cap of an astonishing $1.84 trillion, within spitting distance of the once-unimaginable $2 trillion valuation. And it makes Apple the most valuable publicly traded company in the world.
Apple’s board of directors has approved a four-to-one stock split, the company said Thursday. AAPL stock, which closed Thursday at $384.76, should go for around $100 a share when the split occurs in late August.
The news, revealed in Apple’s blowout Q3 2020 earnings report, means investors with one share at close of business on Aug. 24 will be given three additional shares trading at one-fourth the price. It’s basically a psychological move that makes Apple stock seem more affordable.
Apple will publish its Q3 fiscal report on July 30, complete with an earnings call to investors with Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri.
The call will take place at 2 p.m. Pacific, according to Apple’s Investor Relations webpage.
Sometime in 2021 Apple will be the world’s first $2 trillion company, predicts Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in his latest note to clients.
Ives — one of the most bullish of Apple investors — believes that Apple’s “5G tailwinds and services momentum” has the potential to push it past the $2 trillion market cap.
A decade ago, Berkshire Hathaway founder Warren Buffett said he just didn’t get Apple. Today, Apple shares make up some 43% of Berkshire Hathaway’s entire stock portfolio, according to a report from Motley Fool.
The firm’s 245 million Apple shares have increased in value by more than $55 billion since the start of 2019 to be worth upward of $91 billion. Still, from an investor’s perspective, it makes you wonder whether you’d be better off simply investing in AAPL itself, rather than paying a fund manager!
AAPL shares have risen to a new all-time high in the aftermath of Monday’s WWDC keynote event. In early trading Tuesday, they hit $358.87 — up from the $351.50 they started the week at, and way up from the $224.37 low point they hit in mid-March.
Guess we should have all invested when we had the chance!
