NEW YORK: Warren Buffett, the billionaire chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc , on Thursday said the conglomerate has bought back its own stock for the first time since 2012 and has added a "little" to its already huge stake in Apple Inc .Buffett also said investors are better off owning a basket of stocks than 30-year bonds and other fixed-income securities as a strong United States economy bolsters corporate profits despite higher costs from tariffs, which have also affected Berkshire."I don't know when to buy stocks, but I know whether to buy stocks," Buffett, celebrating his 88th birthday, said on CNBC television."Business is good across the board," he added.
"It was good two years ago, it keeps getting better."Berkshire has more than 90 businesses in the insurance, energy, food and retail, industrial, railroad and other sectors, and invests in companies such as Apple, Wells Fargo Co, Bank of America Corp and Coca-Cola Co .A buy-back policy announced on July 17 gave Buffett, who has gone 2-1/2 years since a major acquisition, a new way to deploy Berkshire's $111.1 billion of cash and equivalents.Berkshire said the policy would free Buffett and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger to repurchase stock when the price was below Berkshire's "intrinsic value," a determination that would be made "conservatively."Berkshire's old policy forbade buybacks unless the price exceeded 1.2 times book value per share.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based company recently traded at around a 1.45 times multiple.Buffett said "we've bought back a little" stock since the change, and that he and Munger need "a big enough discount" to ensure that long-term shareholders are better off.Berkshire has also bought "just a little" more Apple stock since June 30, he said, when it had a 252 million share stake now worth more than $56 billion.Buffett is also a happy Apple customer.He said he uses his iPad "a lot," and that the iPhone is "enormously underpriced" even when it costs $1,000, given how indispensable it has become for so many people.Buffett was speaking from the Smith Wollensky steak house in Manhattan, where he planned to eat lunch with the person who in June agreed to pay $3,300,100 at an annual charity auction.Proceeds benefit the Glide Foundation, a San Francisco charity that serves people who are poor, homeless or battling substance abuse.
The winning bid was the third-highest in 19 years of auctions, which have raised $29.6 million.Man and the money30 Aug, 2018 How many of you know this Legendary investor Warren Buffett, who turns 88 today, made much of his fortune only after 60!He picked his first stock at the age of 11! And by 16, he was sitting on a cool $53,000 from other investments.
His idea of staying young Coca Cola and ice cream!There are more.
ETNow in a tweet feed has put together a few such fun facts about the Oracle of Omaha.
Here they go.Age no bar30 Aug, 2018 Buffett's is a classic case that shows persistence pays.
It also tells investors that success comes at any age.
His net worth stood at $376 million when he was 52 years old.
At 60, he was worth more than $3.8 billion.
That means nearly 90 per cent of his riches came after the age of 60.First taste of success30 Aug, 2018 The US business tycoon made it to the Forbes 400 richest list for the very first time in 1982 with a net worth of $250 million.
One followed another, and he went on to become the world's richest in 2008 -- with an eye-popping $62 billion.Socks or stocks30 Aug, 2018 "Whether were talking about socks or stocks, I like buying quality merchandise when it is marked down," the chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway had once famously said.Ups and downs30 Aug, 2018 It was not an easy life throughout though.
At one point, Buffett was even rejected from Harvard Business School.
"Forget it.
You are not going to Harvard," the staff had curtly told him.
Looks like, destiny had other designs.