Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffet) has filed its latest 13F filing for Q2 2023, and one thing jumped out: half of Warren Buffet’s portfolio for Q2 2023 is in Apple! Yes, 51% of his portfolio value is in Apple stock. Let’s see how it got there and what we can learn from it.
Warren Buffet Portfolio as of Q2 2023
Here are the top ten holdings in Warren Buffet’s (Berkshire Hathaway) portfolio as of Q2 2023:
Stock | % of Portfolio | Shares | Reported Price | Value |
---|---|---|---|---|
AAPL – Apple Inc | 51% | 915,560,382 | $193.97 | $177,591,247,000 |
BAC – Bank of America Corp. | 8.51% | 1,032,852,006 | $28.69 | $29,632,525,000 |
AXP – American Express | 7.59% | 151,610,700 | $174.20 | $26,410,584,000 |
KO – Coca Cola Co. | 6.92% | 400,000,000 | $60.22 | $24,087,999,000 |
CVX – Chevron Corp. | 5.56% | 123,120,120 | $157.35 | $19,372,949,000 |
OXY – Occidental Petroleum | 3.78% | 224,129,192 | $58.80 | $13,178,796,000 |
KHC – Kraft Heinz Co. | 3.32% | 325,634,818 | $35.50 | $11,560,036,000 |
MCO – Moody’s Corp. | 2.46% | 24,669,778 | $347.72 | $8,578,175,000 |
HPQ – HP Inc. | 1.07% | 120,952,818 | $30.71 | $3,714,461,000 |
DVA – DaVita HealthCare Partners | 1.04% | 36,095,570 | $100.47 | $3,626,522,000 |
Apple is now 51% of Warren Buffet’s portfolio. That’s quite a concentration. But as you may have guessed, Buffet did not build this position overnight. He has been buying Apple for many years. Let’s look further at how Berkshire built up this Apple position over the years.
Berkshire’s Apple Position Over the Years
Number of Apple Shares in Portfolio
Berkshire started its Apple position in 2016 and has continued buying it aggressively throughout 2016 and 2017. However, its Apple position has stagnated since Q1 2018. And it has declined since then because Berkshire started selling small portions throughout 2019-2020. Berkshire started adding small positions again in 2022.
Percentage of Apple in Portfolio
However, as a percentage of Berkshire’s portfolio value, Apple has steadily climbed since Q1 2018, reaching the highest level of 51% today. Considering that Berkshire has barely been buying Apple again, how can it grow so much in its portfolio?
Apple Stock Price
Over the same period, since Q1 2018, Apple’s stock price has almost quadrupled! This rise in stock price lifted Berkshire’s total Apple stock value to the current 51% of its portfolio today. Even without adding significant positions anymore, its Apple portfolio value continues to grow as Apple’s stock price continues to rise.
What Can We Learn?
In short, let your winners run.
Apple is one of the winners in Buffet’s portfolio, and he has continued to let it run over the years. As Apple’s stock price continues to rise, Buffet’s Apple position also grows, and the compounding machine works its magic year after year.
As investors, we often fall into the trap of trying to time the market by buying low and selling high. Well, it’s great if you can time the market perfectly. But unfortunately, most people can’t.
Buffet did not try to time the market. He bought Apple quarter after quarter even as Apple’s stock price continued to rise. He did not sell his winners too early and let them compound over the years.
Investors should adopt a long-term mindset and learn how to properly value a business instead of trying to time the market. This will allow them to acquire fundamentally strong businesses when they are undervalued. By holding these businesses for the long term, the compounding effect will take place, and the portfolio will continue to grow as the businesses grow. Long-term investors should aim for ‘time in the market’ instead of ‘timing the market.’