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.

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。

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.

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。

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.

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。

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.

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。

“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.”

“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。”

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.

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。

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.”

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。”