Warren told Becky Quick that he wanted to buy more Apple than he did in March, but that the price went up. Well, AAPL is now selling about 7% below its March low.
APPL is shorted by the Big Short.
https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/big-short-mi…
APPL is shorted by the Big Short…
I have no other information on that, but—
Technically speaking, all we know is that he was synthetically net short at March 31 when the price was $174.61.
He may not longer be short now that the price is $140.82, down -19.4%.
Though unlikely, it’s quite possible he has just closed that position for a $7m profit.
Tangentially related:
My valuation exercise for Berkshire is very conservative in how it values the Apple position, so there was a big haircut from market value at March 31.
The price is now pretty close to the valuation level I use.
Basically, I use 21 times eyeball-adjusted earnings rate.
The theory is that some good firms are worth that much, but few are worth more than that with any sufficiently high degree of predictability.
I would rather be pleasantly surprised than count my chickens prematurely.
As a secondary benefit, my valuation tracks Apple’s trajectory of earning power rather than its market price, which is steadier and more predictable, and ultimately more meaningful.
Jim
APPL is shorted by the Big Short.
Very different cost basis, different holding period, different investment thesis. Like I said, Billionaire investments are not useful for average investors. Same goes for ultra sophisticated Hedge Funds trades.
"Warren told Becky Quick that he wanted to buy more Apple than he did in March, but that the price went up. Well, AAPL is now selling about 7% below its March low.
As of yesterday ~1,527,227,600 APPL shares had traded in May (Yahoo). That’s about 9% of the 16 billion AAPL shares outstanding changing hands in just 13 trading days. Not as extreme as the OXY situation in March but similar. People (and bots) trading shares in “the best business in the world” like poker chips.
As an Apple shareholder(directly and through BRK), I would like to see AAPL shares held by stronger hands. I take comfort knowing this is happening as I type.
We can speculate who those stronger hands are :), but have to believe the AAPL and Buffett hands are in there buying AAPL aggressively. In the mean time, our ownership in the business is increasing steadily.