Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investors in history and over the years, he has been known to make large bets on companies that he believes in, and eventually, he ends up holding them for years. However, at the same time, Buffett is also known to have strong opinions about stocks he does not own and one of the companies about which he was skeptical was e-commerce giant Amazon. Over the past two decades, Amazon has changed the way people shop and has grown exponentially during that period as it upended industries all across the world. Hence, it was a surprise that someone like Buffett had not seen the potential of such an enterprise. However, that is no longer the case, and this week, he revealed that as of March this year, he owns $860.6 million worth of Amazon stock, through his company Berkshire Hathaway.
The information was revealed in the company’s regulatory filing in March. Earlier on in May, Buffett had revealed that he owns 483,000 shares in the e-commerce giant and went on to state that he had been an ‘idiot’ to not have invested in the Amazon stock earlier. It comes to a candid admission from someone who has been largely correct about the stocks over the years and now Berkshire Hathaway’s stake is worth a handsome $904 million. Despite Amazon being a blue chip stock, an endorsement of this sort from someone like Warren Buffett is, without a doubt, a big deal for the company and it is certain to create more of an interest for the stock among million of retail investors.
In addition to that, it is also important to note that the investment from Berkshire Hathaway also marks the strengthening of the collaboration between Buffett and Bezos. They have both invested in the venture Haven, along with JP Morgan Chase that seeks to reduce employees’ healthcare costs. While Buffett called himself an ‘idiot’ for not having invested in Amazon earlier, the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Charlie Munger did not express such sentiments and in fact, went on to call Jeff Bezos a ‘miracle worker.’ Munger said,
I don’t mind not having caught Amazon early. The guy is kind of a miracle worker. It’s very peculiar. I give myself a pass on that.
It is indeed a bit of a miracle that Berkshire Hathaway had not seen the e-commerce explosion coming but then against even ace investors cannot always be right.
