You need to keep up on Warren Buffett stocks, because while the Berkshire Hathaway (BRKB) chief sticks to a winning investing formula, that doesn't mean sitting still.
XIn the fourth quarter of 2023, Berkshire Hathway seemed to hold off on new stock purchases while selling down Apple (AAPL), HP (HPQ) and Paramount Global (PARA), according to the company's latest 13F filing.
Berkshire added to Chevron (CVX) and Occidental Petroleum (OXY), growing its bet on the oil patch.
Top Warren Buffett Stocks By Size
At the start of 2024, these were the top 10 stocks in Berkshire's portfolio by number of shares:
- Bank of America (BAC), 1.03 billion
- Apple (AAPL), 905.6 million
- Coca-Cola (KO), 400 million
- Kraft Heinz (KHC), 325.6 million
- Occidental Petroleum (OXY), 248.1 million
- American Express (AXP), 151.6 million
- Chevron (CVX), 126.1 million
- Nu Holdings (NU), 107.1 million
- Paramount Global (PARA), 63.3 million
- Citigroup (C), 55.2 million
All told, Buffett and his team oversee around 50 stocks in Berkshire's equity portfolio.
Berkshire Hathaway Investment Strategy
While Apple stock is the No. 2 stock in the portfolio by number of shares, it is No. 1 by market value.
At the beginning of 2024, Berkshire's position in Apple was worth a whopping $174.4 billion.
In fact, Berkshire Hathaway is a major institutional owner of AAPL stock, which you could call the poster child for Warren Buffett stocks due to its strong earnings, returns and management.
Top Buffett stocks tend to be dividend growers. Take Coca-Cola (KO) stock, which has grown dividends for more than 50 years in a row.
Between 1965 and 2023, the widely followed Berkshire Hathaway portfolio posted a 19.8% compound annual gain. That is nearly double the 10.2% return of the S&P 500 index, with dividends included.
Buy And Hold For The Long Term
Buffett is known as a buy-and-hold investor, hanging on to stocks for years and even decades. But there has been rapid turnover lately.
In 2023, the investing legend ditched various financial stocks just a few quarters after buying them for the first time.
In the previous two years, Berkshire Hathaway dumped several drug and biotech stocks, not long after opening bets on them.
In 2020, Berkshire exited its airlines stocks amid the pandemic hit to travel, shortly after buying them.
However, the Berkshire chief continues to prioritize finding and buying quality stocks at a fair price — and holding them for the long term. He patiently builds those stock positions over time.
Buffett has owned Coca-Cola since 1988, for example. He has owned American Express since 2001 and Apple since 2016.
And Apple stock now makes up half of Berkshire's total equity portfolio, up from 6% in 2016.
Warren Buffett Investment Strategy
Investor's Business Daily created a screen of stocks based on the Buffett investment strategy.
IBD generally uses a different stock-picking strategy than Warren Buffett does. But companies owned by Buffett can sometimes be found on the IBD Leaderboard and IBD 50 list of top growth stocks.
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