Buffett singles out Apple among top three valuable holdings

Omaha, Nebraska

BERKSHIRE Hathaway's holding in Apple has become so valuable that Warren Buffett eyes it on an equal footing with the sprawling railroad business he spent a decade building.

Mr Buffett has amassed US$120 billion worth of Apple stock since his conglomerate started purchases in late 2016, while only spending US$31.1 billion building that stake. That places it among his top three most valuable assets, alongside his insurers and BNSF, the American railroad purchase he completed in 2010, he said in his annual letter on Saturday.

Mr Buffett had traditionally shied away from technology stocks, saying that he did not invest in companies he didn't understand.

But Berkshire, with help from investing deputies including Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, has come around in recent years, adding shares in Amazon.com, Snowflake, and more recently, accumulating an US$8.6 billion holding in Verizon Communications.

"Berkshire arrived very late to the Apple party and it has still worked out," Cathy Seifert, an analyst at CFRA Research, said.

"I don't know what it says more about - Apple's resiliency or Berkshire's deal-making - when an iconic technology name is now considered a valued franchise within Berkshire." BLOOMBERG