Warren Buffett's Berkshire ramps up its giant Apple stake again, dumps Verizon
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway ramped up its stake in Apple again last quarter during the tech-driven sell-off, while the conglomerate exited the Verizon holding it had owned for almost two years. The holding company raised its bet on the iPhone maker to 894.8 million shares, worth $122.3 billion at the end of June, according to a quarterly 13F filing released Monday evening. Omaha-based Berkshire owned 890.9 million shares of Apple at the end of the first quarter. The "Oracle of Omaha" also bought the dip in Apple, his biggest stock holding by far, in the first quarter during heightened volatility. Buffett previously called Apple one of the four "giants" at Berkshire , and said he particularly likes CEO Tim Cook's stock repurchase strategy. Also during the second quarter, Berkshire dumped its entire stake in Verizon, worth more than $70 million. It had owned the telecom stock since the third quarter of 2020. Here are the top 10 holdings in Berkshire's massive equity portfolio at the end of the second quarter. Buffett continued to boost his stake in Chevron in the second quarter. The bet is now worth $23.3 billion, making it Berkshire's fourth biggest equity holding. The integrated oil producer has outperformed the broader market significantly, rising more than 30% so far this year. Berkshire also increased its stake in Activision Blizzard slightly last quarter, pushing the stake to its 10th largest holding. Buffett previously said during Berkshire's annual shareholder meeting that he would buy more Activision shares for a merger arbitrage play, betting that Microsoft's proposed acquisition of the video game company will in fact close.