Warren Buffett: Apple is an ‘extraordinary business’ with ‘indispensable’ products

Speaking at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting on Saturday, Warren Buffett said he erred in trimming his position in Apple by 6% last year saying the an “extraordinary business” with “indispensable” products.

The 90-year-old retained his optimism for the future of the company he has run since 1965, including after he’s gone. Buffett said, “We’ve seen some strange things happen in the world in the last year, 15 months. It has reinforced our desire to figure out everything possible to make sure that Berkshire is, 50 or 100 years from now, every bit the organization and then some that it is now.”

Reuters:

The annual meeting was held in Los Angeles, where Buffett joined Berkshire’s 97-year-old vice chairman Charlie Munger, to answer more than three hours of shareholder questions… Berkshire scrapped for a second year its annual shareholder weekend in its Omaha, Nebraska, hometown, an extravaganza that normally attracts around 40,000 shareholders…

Buffett stood by Apple, calling the iPhone maker an “extraordinary business” with “indispensable” products, and admitted he erred by selling a small percentage of Berkshire’s shares late last year.

As the meeting concluded, Buffett said the odds were “very, very good” that next year’s meeting would include shareholders again. “We really look forward to meeting you in Omaha,” he said.

MacDailyNews Take: Even after Warren Buffett’s ill-fated trimming of Apple last year — obviously a mistake — the company remained Berkshire Hathaway’s largest stock holding, by far.