Investing

How Warren Buffett’s Tech Holdings Performed in Q2

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway holds just four tech stocks in its portfolio of 48 equities, but these four comprise 42% of the portfolio's value.

By Paul Ausick
Published July 2, 2021, 9:11am ET · 2 min read

A close-up portrait of Warren Buffett, an older man with light gray hair and glasses, looking to his left with a pensive expression. He is wearing a dark suit, a white shirt, and a red patterned tie. His right hand is resting on his cheek, and he has a gold watch on his left wrist. In the blurred background, a red and white striped American flag with a yellow tassel is visible.
Warren Buffett, the renowned investor, is captured in a contemplative moment, emblematic of his strategic approach to long-term value investing. His significant dividend earnings from holdings like Coca-Cola exemplify this philosophy. © Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Based on Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s (NYSE: BRK-B | BRK-B Price Prediction) federal filing at the end of the March quarter, the company’s portfolio includes just four stocks from the technology sector, yet they account for nearly 42% of the portfolio’s value. Unsurprisingly, the 800-pound gorilla among those stocks is Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), accounting for just over 40% of Buffett’s entire portfolio.

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The other three — Snowflake Inc. (NYSE: SNOW), StoneCo Ltd. (NASDAQ: STNE) and VeriSign Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN) — account for 1.7% of the portfolio’s value. Combined, the four tech stocks accounted for $14 billion of the portfolio’s $26.8 billion increase (52%) in the June quarter.

The value of Buffett’s Apple holding of 907.6 million shares increased by about 12.1% in the quarter, and its value on June 30 was $124.3 billion. The calculation is based on CNBC’s tracker of Buffett’s portfolio.

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VeriSign, a software infrastructure company, contributed $370.8 million to Buffett’s portfolio growth last quarter. Buffett’s stake of 12.8 million shares increased in value by nearly 15% to $2.9 billion, as the share price rose by 14.5%.

Snowflake, an application software maker, posted a share price gain of 9.5% in the second quarter and added $76.7 million to the value of the portfolio. Buffet owns 6.1 million shares of Snowflake’s stock.

StoneCo, another applications software company, saw its share price rise by nearly 15%, and its value to Buffett’s portfolio rose by $115.3 million. Buffett owns 10.7 million shares of this stock.

Finally a note about Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN). While many of us think of Amazon as a tech stock, it is categorized as a consumer cyclical stock. Buffett owns 533,300 shares of Amazon, which rose in value by about $184.6 million in the second quarter, about half as much as VeriSign’s increase. Consumer cyclical stocks comprise 2.4% of Buffett’s entire portfolio, most of which is represented by his stake in Chinese automaker BYD.

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Paul Ausick

Paul Ausick has been writing for 247Wallst.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.

He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.

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