Apple shares gains as Berkshire Hathaway buys more of the tech stock
Apple shares closed in the green in the US Wednesday trading session, as it emerged Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway purchased more of the tech stock. The investor has also initiated a new stake in drug maker, Teva.
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Apple shares closed 1.84% higher in the US. The Apple stock is currently trading in positive territory in after-hours business.
Berkshire Hathaway bets on Apple
The US-based investment business has increased its Apple stake by 23% to 31.2 million shares of the tech stock. Berkshire Hathaway’s Apple stake is currently worth $165.3 million, analysis from Bloomberg shows.
The news of the increased holdings in Apple – which come courtesy of an SEC filing document – follows comments from Warren Buffet to CNBC in 2017, that he was more certain of Apple’s future. He added that he’d never sold a share of Apple.
Meanwhile, Berkshire Hathaway dumped almost its entire holdings in Apple rival, IBM. After selling 94.5% of its IBM shares, Buffet’s business now owns just 2.05 million IBM shares.
IBM shares closed up 2.66% to end the US Wednesday trading session at $154.76.
Teva stock purchase
Aside from Berkshire Hathaway’s tech stock dealings, the US investment firm’s decision to buy a stake in Teva came with a purchase of 18.9 million shares, which are worth in the region of $358 million.
The Teva share price jumped sharply in after-hours trading.
Teva, an Israel-based drug maker reported its 2017 earnings on February 8. It said total 2017 revenues grew 2%, while also reporting an operating loss of $17.5 billion.
Teva also warned that 2018 would be another tough year for the drug maker and said it expected revenues to fall to $18.3 billion.
“2017 was a challenging year for Teva”, Kåre Schultz, Teva’s President and CEO, said “We are making strong progress on the restructuring plan, and I am optimistic about the progress made and remain confident in our ability to deliver on our targets in the coming year.”
Meanwhile, there is some expectation that the recent level of Teva shares could signal the bottom for the struggling drugmaker.
