Warren Buffett Goes Into Apple Stock Despite Key Profit Sector Plummeting

Owner and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett is trying to compensate for its weak second quarter as it increases its holdings in Apple Inc. three and a half years since their last big acquisition, the Omaha-based giant has built up more than $50 billion stakes in the tech conglomerate. This would make Apple the firm with the biggest holdings in Berkshire. Back in May, Warren Buffett said that he was pleased with Apple first-quarter reports. He’s likely pleased with second-quarter reports too.

Speaking in a press release from Apple, the CEO of the tech firm, Tim Cook said:

“This was our biggest June quarter ever — driven by all-time record revenue from Services, accelerating growth from Wearables, strong performance from iPad and Mac and significant improvement in iPhone trends. These results are promising across all our geographic segments, and we’re confident about what’s ahead. The balance of calendar 2019 will be an exciting period, with major launches on all of our platforms, new services and several new products.”

It might be quite optimistic at Apple right now but Berkshire’s operating profits fell 11 percent from $6.89 billion to $6.14 billion. The firm took a big hit on their quarterly report profits which was mainly down yo insurance underwriting shortcomings.

As reported by CCN:

“Geico, Berkshire’s auto insurer, suffered a larger number of accidents than usual. Geico's pre-tax underwriting gain fell 42% due to a higher ratio of loss claims to premiums. In total, insurance underwriting profit fell 63%, to $353 million from $943 million.

Coincidentally, distracted-driving fatalities have been reaching all-time highs. After averaging between 3,000 - 3,500 fatalities per year from 2010-2017, distracted-driving deaths surged to an all-time high of 4,637 in 2018.”

Insurance isn’t the only thing the firm is worried about. Earnings in Berkshire's manufacturing sector were stuck in the mud. The firm’s precision Castparts unit was hit hard from the US tariffs which slowed the sale of gas turbine and pipe products.

Open Buffett

Warren Buffett was supposed to meet up with the CEO of TRON, Justin Sun in July but they had planned to gather other cryptocurrency figureheads to convince Buffett that blockchain and crypto were a viable asset. The meeting was delayed though due to Sun battling kidney stones although, to be honest, the whole situation is a little bit up in the air at the moment...