Buffett a 'core believer' in Apple - Wedbush

Investing.com -- Warren Buffett remains a "core believer" in Apple Wedbush said after Berkshire Hathaway's (NYSE:BRKa) results on Saturday showed that it sold about half its stake in Apple, even as the conglomerate posted a record quarterly operating profit.

Berkshire sold approximately 390 million Apple shares (NASDAQ:AAPL) in the second quarter, on top of 115 million sold from January to March, as the iPhone maker's stock price rose 23%.

Berkshire still owned about 400 million shares worth $84.2 billion as of June 30.

In a note on Saturday Wedbush noted that Berkshire has sold Apple stock over the past year and in 1Q sold more than 10% of its stake, "so it's not a shock that the sales continued in 2Q although the magnitude is the headline grabber."

Wedbush noted that Berkshire still has Apple as its number one position and is more than double its next largest position in Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) at roughly $41 billion.

"While the bears will clearly run with this news and narrative coming off a brutal Friday sell-off in tech stocks, we strongly caution that Buffett is a core believer in Apple and we do not view this as a smoke signal for bad news ahead (and its still the #1 Berkshire position by a wide margin)," the note said.

"Apple just delivered a 9.7/10 June quarter in our view with strong September guidance into an AI driven iPhone 16 super cycle and that bull thesis is firmer today than before earnings."