CNBC Warren Buffett bought the plunge into Apple No. 1 during the tech giant’s sell-off in the first quarter. Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO told CNBC’s Becky Quick that he had acquired $ 600 million worth of Apple stock after a three-day drop last month. Apple is the single largest shareholder in the group, valued at $ 159.1 billion at the end of March, accounting for approximately 40% of its portfolio. “Unfortunately the stock went up again, so I stopped. Otherwise who knows how much we would have bought?” the 91-year-old investor told Quick on Sunday after the annual meeting of Berkshire shareholders. Zoom Icon Arrows pointing outwards There have been many buying opportunities for Buffett this year, as Apple shares came under pressure amid fears of rising interest rates and supply chain restrictions. The stock fell 1.7% in the first quarter with multiple three-day streaks throughout the period. Apple once fell for eight consecutive days in January and the stock fell nearly 10% in the second quarter. Berkshire began buying Apple shares in 2016 under the influence of Buffett’s investment deputies Todd Combs and Ted Weschler. Berkshire is now Apple’s largest shareholder, outside of stock and stock market providers. Buffett had previously called Apple one of the four “giants” in his group and the second most important after the Berkshire insurance group, thanks to its CEO. “Tim Cook, the brilliant CEO of Apple, rightly considers users of Apple products to be his first love, but all his other constituencies also benefit from Tim’s administrative touch,” Buffett’s annual letter said. for 2021. Oracle of Omaha said it was a fan of Cook’s share repurchase strategy and how it gives the group increased ownership of every dollar of the iPhone maker’s profits without the investor having to lift a finger. Apple said last week it had approved $ 90 billion worth of stock repurchases, maintaining its pace as the publicly-owned company that spends the most on its own stock. It spent $ 88.3 billion on acquisitions in 2021. Cook was present at Berkshire’s annual meeting last weekend. The heterogeneous group has also been enjoying regular dividends from the tech giant all these years, averaging about $ 775 million a year.