Warren Buffett's Largest Stock Holding, Apple No More A $3 Trillion Company

Tech giant, Apple Inc recorded a heavy selloff after its quarterly earnings, erasing its $3 trillion valuation mark. Apple is the largest stock by far that is held by the ace investor, Warren Buffett who is often referred to as the 'Oracle of Omaha'. Apple shares nosedived by nearly 5% on Nasdaq.

On the exchange, Apple's share price dipped by 4.80% to $181.99. The stock settled near its intraday low of $181.92 on Friday.

At the current market price, Apple's valuation stood at $2.86 trillion.

Apple became the first company to hit a market value of $3 trillion in June.

Apple investors held a bearish tone after a decline in iPhone sales during the third quarter of FY23. The company's topline also dipped for the third consecutive quarter, however, net income picked up gradually due to record performance in the services segment.

On August 3rd, Apple recorded a slight decline of 1% YoY in its net sales to $81.8 billion in the third quarter of its fiscal 2023, compared to sales of $82.96 billion in Q1 of the previous fiscal.

On an expected line, iPhone sales dipped by 2.45% to $39.67 billion in Q3 of the current fiscal, compared to $40.67 billion sales a year ago same quarter. Also, sales of Mac dived by 7.34% YoY to $6.84 billion, while iPad sales plunged by 19.84% YoY to $5.79 billion.

Meanwhile, Apple's net income gradually rose by 2.26% to $19.88 billion in Q3, as against $19.44 billion a year ago same quarter.

Tim Cook, Apple's CEO said, "We are happy to report that we had an all-time revenue record in Services during the June quarter, driven by over 1 billion paid subscriptions, and we saw continued strength in emerging markets thanks to robust sales of iPhone."

On a geographical basis, Apple outperformed in what seemed like its weakest smartphone market, China after a decade. Sales in Greater China jumped by 7.90% YoY to $15.76 billion, while Europe market recorded a rise of 4.76% YoY to $20.21 billion. Sales were down in other markets like America, Japan, and Rest of Asia Pacific.

According to StockCircle data, Warren Buffett acquired 916 Million Apple shares worth $176 Billion. It makes up 49.27% of their stock portfolio and is their biggest holding. The investor owns 5.80% of the outstanding Apple stock. The first Apple trade was made in Q1 2016. Since then Warren Buffett bought shares thirteen more times and sold shares on five occasions. The stake cost the investor $36.3 Billion, netting the investor a gain of 386% so far.