Warren Buffett made waves in 2016 when Berkshire Hathaway purchased Apple shares for the first time, snapping up 9.8 million of them. It was a break from his past because Buffett had long been hesitant to jump into tech stocks except for a stake in International Business Machines.
But Buffett has reversed his thinking. Berkshire has exited its IBM stake even as it bought 75 million more shares of Apple in the first quarter of this year. So what has changed to make Buffett one of the largest owners of Apple stock?
Buffett admitted to CNBC in February 2018 that he was mistaken about IBM stock over Apple. "I was wrong, or at least I felt like I was wrong on IBM when I sold it and I was wrong when I bought it. I felt that Apple has an extraordinary consumer franchise."
Berkshire has gone from owning zero shares of Apple a few years ago to owning more than 240 million shares.