After the earnings report, $Apple (AAPL.US)$shares surged 6%, making their best day since November 2022.

Earnings were not the only trigger for the rebound. Apple also announced a $110 billion share buyback plan, which together lifted Apple's share price.

The following weekend, Warren Buffett also shared his views on Apple at the annual $Berkshire Hathaway-A (BRK.A.US)$ shareholders meeting.

Is Buffett still bullish on Apple? Can Apple's buyback reverse the downturn in its stock price?

"Apple is an even better business"

Over the past weekend, Berkshire Hathaway held its annual shareholders' meeting for the year 2024. Warren Buffett, the CEO and a well-known investor in Apple, shared his opinions on the tech giant at the event.

According to Berkshire's first-quarter report, its Apple holdings have decreased by about 13%, marking the second consecutive quarter of reducing its Apple stakes. Despite this reduction, Apple remains the company's largest holding by quarter's end.

Berkshire's top 5 holdings:

1. $Apple (AAPL.US)$ – $135.4 billion

2. $Bank of America (BAC.US)$– $39.2 billion

3. $American Express (AXP.US)$– $34.5 billion

4. $Coca-Cola (KO.US)$– $24.5 billion

5. $Chevron (CVX.US)$– $19.4 billion

?Check Berkshire's holdings

Berkshire bought Apple shares mainly from 2016 to 2018 for around $35 each, and the stock is now $183.05. Selling Apple stock has caught investors' attention, and at the Berkshire shareholder meeting, Buffett mentioned that the sale was mainly due to tax considerations.

Despite the sell-off, Buffett's opinion on Apple is unchanged.

?Review Buffett's meeting takeaways

Largest US stock buyback

Two days before Berkshire's meeting, Apple released its latest quarterly earnings and announced $110 billion in share buyback.

The $110 billion buyback is the largest stock repurchase plan in US stock history. Additionally, in the list of the largest stock buybacks in US stock, Apple claims the top six positions.

Besides the buybacks, Apple's earnings also actually surpassed market expectations.

Despite a 4.3% decline in quarterly revenue to $90.8 billion, Apple still surpassed the analysts' projection of $90.3 billion and exceeded Wall Street's profit expectations.

In recent months, Apple's slowdown in China has raised investor concerns. Actually, Apple's last quarter revenue from greater China was $16.4 billion, slightly down from the previous year but still exceeding the $15.9 billion analyst forecast.

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Analysts Opinions

After earnings, analysts at Bank of America raised their price target for Apple from $225 to $230, citing expectations that the company will introduce AI-powered features on the iPhone this year. They called Apple a top pick and kept a buy rating.

Morgan Stanley analysts also raised their Apple target price from $210 to $216, motivated by strong quarterly results, a rise in March iPhone sales to China year-over-year, share repurchases, and potential AI feature updates.

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On Tuesday, Apple released the latest versions of its iPad Air and iPad Pro devices, marking the company's first update to the iPad range since October 2022. Apple has updated the iPad Pro with an M4 chip to enhance AI performance and try to catch up in the tech industry's AI race.

And according to Bloomberg's latest news, Apple is close to a deal with OpenAI to add ChatGPT to iPhones.

Apple's next event is the WWDC conference on June 10th, where the company is expected to announce its artificial intelligence software strategy.

Sources: moomoo, CNBC, Berkshire Hathaway, Barrons, Bloomberg, Reuters. Data as of 05/10/2024.