Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway ramped up its stake in Apple again last quarter during the tech-driven sell-off, while the conglomerate exited the Verizon holding it had owned for more than a year. The holding company raised its bet on the iPhone maker to 894.8 million shares, worth $122.3 billion at the end of June, according to a quarterly 13F filing released Monday evening. Omaha-based Berkshire owned 890.9 million shares of Apple at the end of the first quarter. The “Oracle of Omaha” also bought the dip in Apple, his biggest stock holding by far, in the first quarter during heightened volatility. Buffett previously called Apple one of the four “giants” at his conglomerate , and said he’s particularly a fan of CEO Tim Cook’s stock repurchase strategy. During the same quarter, Berkshire dumped its entire stake in Verizon, worth more than $70 million in the second quarter. The conglomerate had owned the telecom stock since the third quarter of 2020. The conglomerate also continued to up its stake in Chevron in the second quarter. The bet is now worth $23.3 billion, making it Berkshire’s fourth biggest equity holding. Berkshire also increased its stake in Activision Blizzard slightly last quarter. Buffett previously said during Berkshire’s annual shareholder meeting that he would buy more stocks in a merger arbitrage play, betting that Microsoft’s proposed acquisition of the video game company will close. This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
