If You Invested $1,000 In Apple When Warren Buffett Bought Shares, Here's How Much You'd Have Today

One of the most successful value investors of all-time shocked investors with the purchase of Apple Inc AAPL shares in 2016. The stock now makes up a large portion of the Berkshire Hathaway Inc (NYSE: BRK-A)(NYSE: BRK-B) portfolio.

Here’s a look at how shares of the technology giant have performed since the "Oracle of Omaha’s" purchase was disclosed.

What Happened: Legendary investor Warren Buffett unveiled a 9.8 million purchase of Apple shares on May 16, 2016. The shares were purchased by Berkshire Hathaway, the conglomerate led by Buffett.

The Apple shares were bought at an average price of $27.25 at the time, or around $6.81 adjusted for a 2020 stock split. The initial stake purchased by Buffett was around $1.1 billion.

Buffett trimmed part of the Apple stock position in 2021, taking some gains from the investment in the technology giant.

Since that time, Buffett has added to the Apple position making it one of the biggest pieces in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio and making the company one of the biggest owners of Apple shares.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, Berkshire Hathaway added to its Apple stake, buying over 333,000 shares.

In the first quarter of 2023, Berkshire Hathaway increased its holdings of Apple, adding an additional 20,424,207 shares.

At the end of the first quarter, Berkshire Hathaway owned 915,560,382 Apple shares. This makes the investment worth around 46% of the company's investment portfolio, worth around $170 billion.

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Investing $1,000 With Buffett: An investor who chose on May 16, 2016, the Berkshire Hathaway filing date, to buy a stake in Apple has done quite well.

Shares of Apple traded between $22.91 and $23.85 on May 16, 2016. An investment of $1,000 at the day’s high could have bought 10.48 shares of Apple.

A four-for-one stock split by Apple in August 2020 would have taken 10.48 shares of Apple to 41.92 shares. Those 41.92 shares of Apple would be valued at $7,811.79 at the time of writing, based on a share price of $186.35 for AAPL.

This represents a hypothetical return of 681.2% over the last seven years, one that has outperformed the overall stock market.

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust, which tracks the S&P 500, would have seen a $1,000 investment turn into $2,392.01 over the same time period. This represents a hypothetical return of 139.2% over the same time period.

Buffett has been recognized for his value investing strategy. Some may have seen his investment in Apple as a rare one, given his preference for value over growth and his typical shyness to technology stocks. Investors who followed his investment are likely thankful they did.

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