【英语财经】巴菲特10亿美元买入苹果股票 Buffett takes $1bn Apple stake in rare bet on tech

Warren Buffett has taken a $1bn-plus stake in Apple, just four years after admitting he did not know how to value technology companies like the iPhone maker.

Disclosure of the rare tech bet by the renowned value investor follows a one-third slump in Apple’s shares since last summer, and underlines Wall Street’s worries that the world’s most valuable company is facing a low-growth future.

Shares in Apple jumped 3.5 per cent to $93.67 early yesterday afternoon after Berkshire Hathaway, Mr Buffett’s holding group, divulged it had bought 9.81m shares in a regulatory filing.

Mr Buffett, a fan of inexpensive stocks with predictable cash flows, has long eschewed tech company investments out of concern that even the industry’s leaders could be undermined by fast-changing tech markets.

“It signals a change in the kind of company Apple is,” said Gene Munster at Piper Jaffray, long one of the most bullish analysts on the company. “There are new investors — it used to be growth and high-risk investors, now it’s more value and return on capital.”

Mr Buffett broke with past practice in 2011 with a move into IBM, now one of his biggest holdings. Berkshire said yesterday that it had slightly lifted its IBM stake to 81.2m shares, worth $12.3bn.

In 2012, Mr Buffett was asked why he had invested in IBM and not Apple. He replied: “The chances of being way wrong in IBM are probably less, at least for us, than the chances of being way wrong in Google or Apple?.?.?.?I just don’t know how to value them.”

Additional reporting by Mark Odell and Pan Yuk

沃伦?巴菲特(Warren Buffett)斥资逾10亿美元买进苹果公司(Apple)的股份，而4年前他承认自己不知道如何评估诸如这家iPhone制造商等科技公司的价值。

这位著名的价值型投资者对科技股作出罕见投资之举披露之际，苹果股价自去年夏天以来下跌了三分之一，突显华尔街对全球市值最高公司面临低增长未来的担忧。

在巴菲特的控股集团伯克希尔哈撒韦公司(Berkshire Hathaway)在一份监管申报文件中披露其买进了981万股后，昨日午后苹果股价上涨3.5%，至93.65美元/股。

巴菲特热衷于购入具有可预测现金流且估值不高的股票，长久以来他一直避免投资科技公司，担心即使该行业的领头羊也可能被快速变化的科技市场动摇。

“这标志着苹果已经变成另一类公司，”长久以来一直最看涨苹果的分析师之一、Piper Jaffray的基尼?蒙斯特(Gene Munster)称，“现在有了新的投资者——以往是增长型和高风险投资者，如今有更多价值型和注重资本回报的投资者。”

2011年，巴菲特打破了传统操作模式，买进IBM股票，后者如今是他最大的持股之一。伯克希尔昨日表示，已经小幅增持IBM股份至8120万股，总值123亿美元。

2012年，巴菲特曾被问及他为何投资IBM、而非苹果。他回答称：“至少对我们来说，买错IBM的可能性很可能小于买错谷歌(Google)或苹果的可能性……我就是不知道如何对它们进行估值。”

马克?奥德尔(Mark Odell)和玉品琨(Pan Yuk)补充报道

译者/马柯斯