This is Who Owns the Most Apple Stock. Hint: It's Not Tim Cook. | The Motley Fool (2024)

Apple (AAPL -0.12%) stock has rallied roughly 22% over the last three months thanks to strong earnings and excitement surrounding artificial intelligence initiatives. The company's most recent annual DEF14A filing, which shows how many shares of stock large investors own, shows that CEO Tim Cook's stock position is worth more than $690 million. But at least one other person owns far more Apple stock.

Who owns more of Apple than Tim Cook?

As of Apple's most recent public filing, board chairman Ari Levinson owned more than 4.59 million shares of the company's stock. This position means that he holds more shares of Apple stock directly than any other individually listed shareholder. For comparison, Tim Cook owned a little over 3.28 million shares of his company's stock per the most recent disclosure.

But another high-profile money man may have an even bigger Apple stake. When Apple published its DEF14A showing institutional ownership as of Jan. 31, Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) (NYSE: BRK.B) and its CEO Warren Buffett owned 915.6 million shares of the company's stock. Even after a subsequent disclosure filing from Berkshire showed that it sold roughly 116 million Apple shares in this year's first quarter, Buffett's company still held roughly 790 million shares of the iPhone maker's stock.

Berkshire and Buffett's holdings are combined in Apple's filings, and Buffett's individual stock ownership is not detailed in Berkshire's disclosures. Because of this, it's not clear how much the investment conglomerate's CEO owns directly. But is clear that his indirect investment in Apple is massive. As of Berkshire's most recent 13F filing, Buffett owned 38.4% of his own company's stock. Accordingly, giving him a corresponding ownership position in Berkshire's Apple holdings in addition to any shares in the tech stock that he may hold privately.