Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway bought stunning 75 million Apple shares in first quarter

That adds to the 165.3 million shares Berkshire already owned at the end of 2017.
Wall Street may have had doubts about Apple AAPL before the company reported its most recent quarterly earnings, but one of the tech company's biggest shareholders — Warren Buffett — didn't.

In the first quarter, Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway BRK.A bought an astounding 75 million shares of Apple. That adds to the 165.3 million shares Berkshire already owned at the end of 2017.

"It is an unbelievable company," Buffett says. "If you look at Apple, I think it earns almost twice as much as the second most profitable company in the United States."

Buffett revealed the additional purchases of Apple just ahead of the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, where 40,000 Berkshire shareholders will arrive this weekend. Buffett explained that Berkshire's quarterly earnings report, which will be released on Saturday, includes information on Berkshire's 10 largest holdings, and that astute readers of that report would be able to detect Berkshire's larger interest in Apple.

For more of what Buffett told CNBC ahead of the annual meeting, tune into Squawk Box at 6 a.m. Eastern time on Friday.