How does Warren Buffett like them Apples?
The Oracle of Omaha's top stock just boosted its dividend. That's good news for Berkshire Hathaway, which is hosting its annual "Woodstock of Capitalism" shareholder meeting this weekend.
Berkshire Hathaway famously does not pay a dividend. Warren Buffett prefers to use cash to buy back Berkshire stock, a practice that rewards investors by lowering the share count and boosting earnings per share. But Buffett’s favorite stock does pay a dividend. And you likely won’t hear the Oracle of Omaha complain about that.
Apple, which reported earnings and revenue that topped forecasts after the closing bell Thursday (profits and sales did fall year over year though), also boosted its quarterly dividend by 4% to 24 cents a share. Berkshire owns nearly 916 million shares of the iPhone seller, making Apple its largest holding. So a 96 cent annual dividend from Apple works out to just under an $880 million yearly payout for Berkshire and Buffett. Not too shabby.
Expect Buffett and Berkshire vice chair and long-time pal Charlie Munger to talk a lot about Apple at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting in Omaha on Saturday. Tens of thousands are likely to hear the two nonagenarians (Munger is 99!) speak from the CHI Health Center. If you’re not making the trek to Nebraska, you can watch the livestream on CNBC’s website.
Buffett, who is a mere 92, and Munger will share their thoughts on the broader stock market and economy (among other things) while probably chowing down on ridiculous amounts of See’s Candies peanut brittle and swilling multiple cans of Diet Coke. Berkshire owns’s See’s and is a huge shareholder in Coca-Cola.
In addition, the two will probably be asked several questions about the current regional banking crisis. Berkshire is a long-time fan of big bank stocks and other financial firms. Bank of America is Berkshire’s second-largest holding. The company also owns stakes in Ally Financial, American Express, Bank of New York Mellon, Citigroup, Jefferies, MasterCard, Moody’s, US Bancorp and Visa.
It will be very interesting to see whether Buffett and Munger express any concerns about the failures of First Republic, Silicon Valley and Signature or if they, like Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell, feel that the US banking system is still safe and sound.
But given SVB’s and Signature’s exposure to the crypto industry, Buffett and Munger will probably continue their steady drumbeat of critical remarks about bitcoin and other digital assets. Buffett once called bitcoin “rat poison squared”while Munger has used even more colorful (and profane) insults to describe crypto.
Anyway, I’m not going to Omaha this year. But one of my favorite sources (Berkshire investor Bill Stone of The Glenview Trust) will be there and I’m talking to him Monday morning to get his thoughts about the weekend. So I’ll have a Berkshire recap from him midday Monday here.