10 Stocks Warren Buffett Is Buying (And 11 He's Selling)

Berkshire Hathaway's chief continued his purge of bank stocks during the third quarter, but Warren Buffett also added six brand-new positions.

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The stock market came roaring back during the third quarter, and Warren Buffett busied himself by adding and selling a number of stakes in Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK.B) portfolio.

The most notable theme of the three months ended Sept. 30 was the continuing saga of Berkshire's shrinking bank stocks. Buffett has been cutting the holding company's position in banks for multiple quarters, but he really doubled down in Q3. In just about every other case, the selling was just the trimming of a position, although Buffett did dump one stock in its entirety.

Most interesting, as always, is what Warren Buffett was buying. With the COVID-19 pandemic gripping the world, perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that Berkshire Hathaway added a handful of pharmaceutical stocks to its portfolio. Buffett also picked up a telecommunications company and a rare initial public offering (IPO).

We know what the greatest long-term investor of all time has been up to because the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requires all investment managers with more than $100 million in assets to file a Form 13F quarterly to disclose any changes in share ownership. These filings add an important level of transparency to the stock market and give Buffett-ologists a chance to get a bead on what he's thinking.

When Buffett starts a new stake in some company, or adds to an existing one, investors read into that as a vote of confidence. But if he pares his holdings in a stock, it can spark investors to rethink their own investments.

Here's the scorecard for what Warren Buffett was buying and selling during the third quarter of 2020, based on the most recent 13F that the company filed on Nov. 16. And remember: Not all "Warren Buffett stocks" are actually his picks. Some smaller positions are believed to be handled by lieutenants Ted Weschler and Todd Combs.

Disclaimer

Current price and holdings data is as of Nov. 16. Sources: Berkshire Hathaway's SEC Form 13F filed Nov. 16, 2020, for the reporting period ended Sept. 30, 2020; and WhaleWisdom.

Dan Burrows
Senior Investing Writer, Kiplinger.com

Dan Burrows is Kiplinger's senior investing writer, having joined the august publication full time in 2016.

A long-time financial journalist, Dan is a veteran of SmartMoney, MarketWatch, CBS MoneyWatch, InvestorPlace and DailyFinance. He has written for The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Consumer Reports, Senior Executive and Boston magazine, and his stories have appeared in the New York Daily News, the San Jose Mercury News and Investor's Business Daily, among other publications. As a senior writer at AOL's DailyFinance, Dan reported market news from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and hosted a weekly video segment on equities.

Once upon a time – before his days as a financial reporter and assistant financial editor at legendary fashion trade paper Women's Wear Daily – Dan worked for Spy magazine, scribbled away at Time Inc. and contributed to Maxim magazine back when lad mags were a thing. He's also written for Esquire magazine's Dubious Achievements Awards.

In his current role at Kiplinger, Dan writes about equities, fixed income, currencies, commodities, funds, macroeconomics, demographics, real estate, cost of living indexes and more.

Dan holds a bachelor's degree from Oberlin College and a master's degree from Columbia University.

Disclosure: Dan does not trade stocks or other securities. Rather, he dollar-cost averages into cheap funds and index funds and holds them forever in tax-advantaged accounts.