The disciplined-cohort week opens with two operational dates. Apple's board declared a $0.27 quarterly dividend payable May 14 to shareholders of record on May 11, alongside the second-largest buyback authorization in U.S. corporate history at $100 billion. [1] Berkshire Hathaway's Q1 13F filing window opens this week as well, with the deadline May 15, covering the Q1 portfolio that froze Apple at 300 million shares for what would be the second consecutive quarter. The paper's May 6 cohort-receipt account named the abandonment of net-cash-neutral as the structural shift.

Apple's Q2 print on April 30 was $111.2 billion in revenue, up 17% year-over-year, with $29.6 billion in net income and EPS of $2.01. [2] The buyback authorization was the second-largest in history after Apple's own 2024 $110 billion plan. Berkshire's cash pile sits at $397.4 billion as of the most recent disclosure — net-stock-seller for thirteen consecutive quarters under Buffett before Greg Abel's first quarter as CEO. [3]

The cohort posture: one accumulator, one repurchaser, both refusing to deploy on growth-stage AI infrastructure or merger arbitrage. The 13F filing on May 15 will say whether Abel held the Apple line at 300 million or moved it. The cash question is operational this week, not theoretical. [4]

-- THEO KAPLAN, San Francisco