Warren Buffett Stocks Ranked: The Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio
The Berkshire Hathaway portfolio is a diverse set of blue chips, and increasingly, lesser-known growth bets. Here's a look at every stock picked by Warren Buffett and his lieutenants.
Warren Buffett's stock selections don't look like how they used to.
The Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) equity portfolio has undergone a lot of upheaval over the past decade. For one, Berkshire Hathaway's investment arm has gained a taste for growth plays.
While old-guard favorites such as American Express and Coca-Cola still hang around, Buffett & Co. have taken a shine to stocks such as Apple and Amazon.com, and even lesser-known firms such as Snowflake and Nu Holdings.
But the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio also has gone through several haircuts over the past couple years or so. Buffett has trimmed or cut dozens of stocks as the COVID-19 pandemic drastically altered the investment landscape. He owned several airlines at the start of 2020; now he holds none. Banks were aces among Buffett stocks to begin 2020; Berkshire has spent the past two years kicking them to the curb.
The good news is, at least for the time being, it looks like Buffett has turned from bear to bull.
After being a net seller for the entirety of 2021, Buffett pulled out his wallet and started splashing the cash, opening up eight new positions during the first quarter of 2022 and adding to seven other stakes. That's according to Berkshire Hathaway's most recent Form 13F regulatory filing, submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 16.
If you want to know which stocks legendary investor Warren Buffett feels are worth his time and attention, look no further than the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio. (And as always, remember: A few of these Buffett stocks were actually picked by portfolio managers Todd Combs and Ted Weschler.)
Read on as we examine each and every holding to give investors a better understanding of the entire Berkshire Hathaway portfolio.
Price, share totals and other data as of May 16, 2022. Stocks are listed in reverse order of their weight in the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio. Sources: Berkshire Hathaway’s SEC Form 13F filed May 16, 2022, for the reporting period ended March 31, 2022; and WhaleWisdom.
#47: United Parcel Service
- Shares held: 59,400
- Holding value: $12,739,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.004%
Another quarter has come and gone, and United Parcel Service (UPS, $179.77) remains a (teeny, tiny) part of the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio.
The world's biggest package delivery company has for some time been the smallest position among Warren Buffett's stocks. It's hanging on by a thread, but it has done so for quite some time – for the better part of two decades, in fact.
It's possible "Uncle Warren" hasn't ditched the stock because he doesn't remember it's in there. It'd be hard to spot. At fewer than 60,000 shares, this is a rump position, leftovers, an odd lot.
It's certainly less than what Buffett started out with. UPS stock was added to the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio during the first quarter of 2006, when Buffett added 1.43 million shares worth about $113.5 million at the time. That comes to an average price per share of $79.38.
But UPS never grew to be a major part of Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio, and Buffett has pared the position over the years to where it wouldn't be a surprise if he exited the stake at any time. He's also been characteristically quiet about the stake; there's no mention of United Parcel Service in CNBC's indispensable Warren Buffett archive.
The UPS stake has been a longtime disappointment, with the stock delivering a total return (price plus dividends) of 258% since March 31, 2006, versus 331% for the broader market.
It has at least outperformed since the COVID lows, so that's some salve for Buffett & Co.
#46: Vanguard S&P 500 ETF
- Shares held: 43,000
- Holding value: $17,852,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.005%
Warren Buffett's advice for most investors has always been simple: Buy an S&P 500 Index fund, and while you're at it, throw a little money into Treasuries to help you sleep well in down markets.
However, for years, it was always "indexing for thee, but not for me."
The market's most celebrated stock picker kept on doing what he's always done: picking stocks and not indexing a dime.
Buffett finally took his own medicine in 2019's final innings, however, buying not one but two S&P 500-tracking exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
The first of those is the the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO, $367.84). Like any S&P 500 tracker, it holds every component of the S&P 500 Index, and it does so for an absolute song: 0.03%, or just $3 annually for every $10,000 invested.
It's great that Buffett finally put his money where his mouth was. But if we're being honest, it's a strange position for a man who is actively trying to beat the index. After all, an ETF merely tracks an index, and will actually underperform slightly once costs are included.
Who knows? Maybe Uncle Warren really just wanted to drive his longstanding point home.
#45: SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF
- Shares held: 39,400
- Holding value: $17,795,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.005%
How serious is Buffett about index funds? Well, he brought the subject up again at this year's annual Berkshire Hathaway meeting, saying, "I recommend the S&P 500 index fund and have for a long, long time."
Perhaps that's why, in addition to VOO, he also bought the SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF (SPY, $400.09) back in 2019.
The SPY is America's first ETF, and it's a touch more expensive than VOO at a still extremely reasonable 0.0945% annually, which comes to just $9.45 annually on a $10,000 investment. While many use it as a buy-and-hold investment, its high volume makes it a popular tool for traders, too.
For the most part, SPY is pretty much the same product as the VOO. Both funds track the S&P 500's components. Both funds are extremely liquid. The VOO just has a lighter fee (typical of Vanguard ETFs).
When you add together Berkshire's investments in the two tracking funds, you start to realize those investments probably are largely symbolic. The stakes collectively account for roughly one one-hundredth of a percent of Berkshire Hathaway's equity holdings.
#44: Mondelez International
- Shares held: 578,000
- Holding value: $36,287,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.01%
Another meager position that survived another quarter is Mondelez International (MDLZ, $66.13), whose brands include Oreo cookies, Cadbury chocolate, Halls cough drops, Trident gum and Triscuit crackers.
In 2007, Buffett invested in what was then known as Kraft Foods. The packaged food company changed its name to Mondelez in 2012 after spinning off its North American grocery business, which was called Kraft Foods Group and traded under the ticker KRFT. Kraft Foods Group later merged with H.J. Heinz, in a 2015 deal backed by Buffett, to form Kraft Heinz.
A couple years later, in 2017, Buffett shot down speculation that Kraft Heinz would buy the global snacks giant.
Berkshire Hathaway maintains a significant stake in KHC (more on that in a bit). MDLZ, not so much. Berkshire isn't even among Mondelez's top 100 shareholders, at just 0.04% of MDLZ shares outstanding, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. And Mondelez is a nothingburger among Buffett stocks, accounting for just 1/100th of a percent of the total value of BRK.B's equity portfolio.
The tiny position did hold up well during the bear market, as investors added some consumer staples stocks for defense. But MDLZ has put up more modest returns since stocks got back into gear. All told, Mondelez shares have delivered just 18% in total returns since the Feb. 19, 2020, market top; the S&P 500 has returned 25%.
Nothing to see here, folks.
#43: Liberty Latin America
- Shares held (Class A / Class C): 2,630,792 / 1,284,020
- Holding value (Class A / Class C): $25,518,000 / $12,314,000
- Percent of portfolio (Total): 0.01%
Over the years, Berkshire has made several de facto bets on legendary pay-TV mogul John Malone. The initial appeal to Buffett and his portfolio managers is plain to understand: Game knows game.
Liberty Latin America Class A Shares (LILA, $8.90) and Liberty Latin America Class C Shares (LILAK, $8.87) represent one of those bets.
Liberty Latin America provides cable, broadband, telephone and wireless services in Chile, Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and other parts of Latin America. Liberty Global (LBTYK), the multinational telecommunications company in which Berkshire also holds a stake, issued tracking stock of its Latin American operations in 2015, then spun off those operations entirely in 2018.
More recently, in November 2020, Liberty Latin America closed on its nearly $2 billion purchase of AT&T's (T) wireless and wireline assets in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. And in August 2021, it completed the acquisition of Telefónica's (TEF) wireless operations in Costa Rica.
There hasn't been much action in LILA and LILAK of late. Buffett left the positions completely untouched in 2021.
#42: Procter & Gamble
- Shares held: 315,400
- Holding value: $48,193,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.01%
Warren Buffett is clearly fond of Dow Jones stocks, which can be found throughout the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio. But Procter & Gamble (PG, $155.12) is one Dow component that has fallen by the wayside as a Berkshire Hathaway investment.
Buffett came to own P&G – maker of Tide detergent, Crest toothpaste and Pampers diapers – via the holding company's 2005 acquisition of razor-maker Gillette. At the time, Buffett, a major Gillette shareholder, called the tie-up a "dream deal." Procter & Gamble became one of BRK.B's biggest equity positions.
The dream didn't last long.
The Great Recession eroded the pricing power of old-line consumer staples companies such as P&G. The company embarked on a plan to shed 100 underperforming brands. The Duracell battery business happened to be on the list, and Berkshire bought it in 2014 in exchange for PG stock. Two years later, Buffett pared what was left of the P&G stake by 99%. He hasn't added to the position since.
While this "Buffett stock" is almost phased out, P&G did prove a helpful holding through the bear market and early on in the recovery. And like many defensive stocks, PG shares have been productive over the past few months.
#41: Johnson & Johnson
- Shares held: 327,100
- Holding value: $57,972,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.02%
Like fellow defensive stock P&G, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, $178.08) has fallen out of favor with Buffett and represents nothing more than a token holding.
Blame the diversified healthcare giant's history of headline-grabbing faceplants. J&J struggled with manufacturing problems and allegations of illegal marketing practices in 2010 and 2011. Buffett was critical of the company for those gaffes, as well as for using too much of its own stock in its 2011 acquisition of device-maker Synthes. Disenchanted with Johnson & Johnson, Berkshire dumped most of its stake in 2012.
Berkshire's position in JNJ topped out at 64.3 million shares in 2007. Today, the holding company's equity stake comes to just 327,100 shares (about $56 million), which represents a negligible fraction of the float.
That position has vastly underperformed as the market has rebounded out of the COVID lows; JNJ shares have delivered a 58% total return, but the S&P 500 has more than doubled.
#40: Royalty Pharma
- Shares held: 1,496,372
- Holding value: $58,299,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.02%
Berkshire Hathaway sure changed its mind in a hurry on Royalty Pharma (RPRX, $40.26).
Tthe holding company initiated a stake in the company just one quarter ago. Specifically, Buffett picked up RPRX during Q3 2021, buying 13.1 million shares worth $475.0 million at the time.
However, he turned around and slashed the stake by more than a third, dumping 4.5 million shares in Q4. Then he let loose another 7.2 million shares, or 82% of the remaining stake, to kick off 2022.
Buffett has been hot and cold – OK, mostly cold – with his bets in the healthcare sector for the past several quarters, which might help explain the abrupt volte-face.
RPRX isn't your usual pharmaceutical play. As the name might indicate, Royalty Pharma is focused on acquiring biopharmaceutical royalties. It doesn't research or develop drugs – it helps provide capital for the companies that do. As the company explains:
"We fund innovation in the biopharmaceutical industry both directly and indirectly – directly when we partner with companies to co-fund late-stage clinical trials and new product launches in exchange for future royalties, and indirectly when we acquire existing royalties from the original innovators."
Through that model, RPRX has gotten a piece of blockbuster drugs such as AbbVie's Imbruvica, Biogen's (BIIB) Tysabri and Pfizer's (PFE) Xtandi.
To be sure, RPRX was never a significant holding to begin with. It now accounts for just 0.02% of Berkshire Hathaway's equity portfolio, down from 0.1% at the end of Q4. And while Buffett was a top-10 shareholder with 3.1% of all shares held when he opened the position, he's now down to 0.3% of the float, putting him outside the top 25.
#39: Marsh McLennan
- Shares held: 404,911
- Holding value: $69,005,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.02%
Berkshire Hathaway has plenty of insurance exposure in its core operations, including Geico, General Re, MLMIC Insurance and Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, among other. But the industry has never been a major factor in its equity portfolio. Indeed, the company dumped what was left in its stake of Travelers (TRV) in early 2020.
So it was something of a surprise that BRK.B not only bought into Marsh McLennan (MMC, $159.03) at the end of 2020, but expanded its position in Q1 2021.
Berkshire initiated a 4.2 million-share position worth just short of half a billion dollars during Q4 2020. It wasn't a major position, at just 0.2% of the total value of Berkshire's equity holdings. But by virtue of another 1 million shares or so purchased during the first quarter of 2021, the stake had increased by 23% in just a few short months.
However, Buffett has had a change of heart of late.
His holding company reduced the position by 20% during the second quarter, then by another 34% in Q3 2021, and it just reported a massive 85% reduction in 2021's final quarter, leaving BRK.B with a trifling 400,000 shares or so.
#38: Verizon
- Shares held: 1,380,111
- Holding value: $70,303,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.02%
Verizon (VZ, $49.04), the only telecommunications company in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, is a beloved staple of long-term dividend investors everywhere. That's why it looked so at home in Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio.
Alas. Buffett has all but kicked it out.
Berkshire and Buffett initiated a brand-new stake in VZ in Q4 2020, picking up almost 146.7 million shares valued at $8.69 billion. In one fell swoop, the telco accounted for a sizable 3.2% of Berkshire's total equity portfolio value. That position got a little bigger in Q1 2021, as Warren Buffett added more than 12 million shares, improving the stake by 8%.
But Buffett pulled a complete 180 during the first quarter of 2022, unloading 157 million shares. That's all but 1% of the stake. Berkshire went from being the fourth-largest owner of VZ shares to being virtually inconsequential at just 0.03% of the float.
#37: StoneCo
- Shares held: 10,695,448
- Holding value: $125,137,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.03%
Brazilian financial technology firm StoneCo (STNE, $8.36) provides software and hardware for companies to facilitate credit- and debit-card payments. And it had been one of the "growthiest" Warren Buffett stocks since Berkshire entered the position in Q4 2018.
But my, how things have changed.
STNE shares more than doubled in 2020 to easily outdo the S&P 500's 18% returns, bringing Buffett's gains since the end of 2018 to 355%. But StoneCo's stock has since gone ice-cold, shedding more than 90% of its value since February 2021. Since the start of 2019, STNE shares have delivered a 52% loss compared to a 70% total return for the S&P 500.
Small wonder, then, that Buffett took some profits during Q1 2021, selling off roughly 3.5 million shares, or 24% of the stake. A little more surprising he hasn't touched the position since.
Given the relatively small position in STNE, and the fact that it's a fintech company, you won't be surprised to learn the position was initiated by Buffett lieutenant Todd Combs – with the Oracle of Omaha's blessing, no doubt.
But while StoneCo isn't necessarily in the Buffett stocks blueprint, it nonetheless fits well with Berkshire Hathaway's general bullishness on companies that facilitate and process payments. "Payments are a huge deal worldwide," Warren Buffett said at Berkshire's 2018 shareholder meeting.
#33: Floor & Decor
- Shares held: 4,780,000
- Holding value: $387,180,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.11%
In the first quarter of 2022, Warren Buffett doubled down (and then some) on Floor & Decor Holdings (FND, $69.80), which sells hard surface flooring and related accessories primarily through 133 company-operated warehouse store formats.
Buffett bought more than 816,000 shares in the company worth almost $99 million during the third quarter of 2021. He then added another 26,846 shares, or 3%, in Q4.
But he really put an exclamation point on the investment in Q1 2022, adding another 3.9 million shares. FND went from a negligible 0.03% of Berkshire's portfolio to a more significant 0.1%. It remains a small position, to be sure, but it still fits nicely with some of Buffett's other holdings and investments.
Berkshire, for example, has been building a position in home goods retailer RH (RH) – formerly known as Restoration Hardware – since the third quarter of 2019. And he's made no secret of his love for Berkshire Hathaway's wholly owned subsidiary Nebraska Furniture Mart.
Floor & Decor thus appears to be a way to play the housing market, albeit with a somewhat oblique, Buffett-style angle.
#35: Ally Financial (NEW POSITION)
- Shares held: 8,969,420
- Holding value: $389,990,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.11%
Ally Financial (ALLY, $38.73) shareholders no doubt appreciated getting Warren Buffett's vote of confidence. The stock is off roughly 30% over the past 52 weeks, including a 19% drop year-to-date and a 9% decline in the first quarter, when Berkshire Hathaway set up camp.
Ally Financial has actually done business for more than a century, though for most of that time it operated as General Motors Acceptance Corporation. It rebranded is Ally in 2010, then went public in 2014. Its main businesses are Ally Bank, an online bank that offers traditional products such as savings and checking services, CDs and IRAs; and Ally Invest, which provides securities-brokerage and investment-advisory services.
After a couple of years of shedding many of his bank holdings, Buffett appears ready to get back into the space. That said, the Ally stake isn't anything to gawk at – the roughly $390 million stake amounts to just a tenth of a percent of Berkshire's overall equity holdings.
It's not an insignificant chunk of Ally Financial, however. Berkshire's 2.7% stake makes it the financial institution's fifth-largest shareholder.
#34: Store Capital
- Shares held: 14,754,811
- Holding value: $431,283,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.12%
Berkshire's position in Store Capital (STOR, $27.35), which it entered during the summer of 2017, was an unusual one. Real estate investment trusts (REITs) – a way to invest in real estate without owning the actual assets – have never been big among Buffett stocks.
Store invests in single-tenant properties including chain restaurants, supermarkets, drugstores and other retail, service and distribution facilities. That is to say, Store is a bet on brick-and-mortar retail, which is thought to be in permanent decline.
Buffett, however, spied value – and he spied it for quite some time. Store Capital CEO Christopher Volk told CNBC that Buffett studied the REIT for three years before taking his position.
The Oracle of Omaha must've seen similar value arise in the company's February-March dip, which sent STOR shares off by roughly 65% from peak to trough. We say that because he bought 5.8 million shares, or an additional 31%, to bring his stake to 24.4 million shares yielding 4.5% at current prices.
But it looks like STOR might not be long among the ranks of Warren Buffett's stocks. Berkshire unloaded 14.7 million shares, or 39% of the stake, during the first quarter of 2022. Store accounted for only 0.25% of Berkshire's equity portfolio at the end of Q4. That's now down to 0.12%.
#33: Formula One Group
- Shares held: 7,722,451
- Holding value: $539,336,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.15%
In a position most likely handled by Ted Weschler, Berkshire more than tripled its stake in Formula One Group (FWONK, $60.22) during the first quarter of 2022. The purchase of an additional 5.6 million shares brings the conglomerate's total holdings up to 7.7 million shares worth $539 million as of March 31.
Berkshire initiated the stake in Q4 – a minuscule one of just 2.1 million shares, worth $134 million at the time. Even now FWONK accounts for only 0.15% of Berkshire's portfolio value.
FWONK holds commercial rights for the Formula One World Championship – a nine-month long motor race-based competition in which teams compete for the constructors' championship and drivers compete for the drivers' championship.
Formula One Group also is a subsidiary of John Malone's Liberty Media Corporation, making FWONK yet another of several Berkshire investments tied to the billionaire businessman. Weschler, in his pre-Berkshire career as a hedge fund manager, invested in a number of Malone's businesses.
#32: Markel (NEW POSITION)
- Shares held: 420,293
- Holding value: $620,034,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.17%
It's possible that Buffett saw something familiar and comforting in the shares of insurance and investment firm Markel (MKL, $1,325.11).
At more than a thousand bucks a pop, MKL stock isn't as easy for traders to push up and down as your garden-variety stock. That's precisely why Warren Buffett has never split Berkshire's A-class shares, whose $460,000 price tag would be enough to buy your average-priced home in Massachusetts with enough left over to park a couple new Mini Coopers in the garage.
Markel is a three-pronged financial institution. Its three major business lines are insurance (insurance, reinsurance, fronting and insurance-linked securities); investing; and Markel Ventures. The latter is a growing portfolio of companies, such as luxury handbag maker Brahmin, homebuilder Eagle and architectural product maker Panel Specialists.
Buffett merely dipped a toe into this position during the first quarter of 2022, buying about 420,000 shares, or $620 million worth of the financial stock. That's less than two-tenths of a percent of the equity portfolio, though it's a 3.1% position in Markel – good enough to make the Oracle its fifth-largest shareholder.
#31: Globe Life
- Shares held: 6,353,727
- Holding value: $639,185,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.18%
Globe Life (GL, $96.27) – known as Torchmark up until 2019 – is another of the small insurance-related holdings in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio.
GL, a life and health insurance firm, might be a boring company, but it has very quietly been a very good stock pick. Berkshire Hathaway has owned shares in Globe Life/Torchmark since early 2001. In that time, GL has generated a total return of 590%, handily outdoing the S&P 500's 361% performance with dividends included.
BRK.B owns 6.4% of Globe Life's shares outstanding, which makes it the firm's four-largest shareholder after Vanguard, Wellington Management and BlackRock.
#30: T-Mobile US
- Shares held: 5,242,000
- Holding value: $672,811,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.19%
Berkshire Hathaway bulked up its exposure to the communication services sector during the third quarter of 2020 by acquiring a small stake in wireless communications company T-Mobile US (TMUS, $126.55).
Then Buffett literally doubled down on that bet during Q4 2020, growing his stake by another 2.8 million shares, or 117%.
T-Mobile is certainly a much more attractive investment since it closed its $26 billion merger with Sprint in April 2020. The deal created a real No. 3 wireless company whose total subscribers are at least within the same ballpark as Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T).
Shares had a rough 2021, off 14% versus a total return of about 29% for the broader market. But they have rebounded in 2022, up 9% versus a 15% decline for the S&P 500.
The 5.2 million-share, $673 million stake now represents 0.19% of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio's worth. That amounts to a 0.4% stake in the firm, making Buffett one of the firm's top 25 shareholders.
#29: RH
- Shares held: 2,170,000
- Holding value: $707,615,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.19%
Berkshire gave a large vote of confidence to RH (RH, $279.83) in Q1, which many readers know as Restoration Hardware.
The holding company upped its position by 19%, or 2.2 million shares. Berkshire's total holdings were worth $708 million as of March 31. Berkshire, which was already positioned in home furnishings retail via its Nebraska Furniture Mart subsidiary, initiated the RH position Q3 2019, and added to it by 1% at the end of last year.
RH operates 104 retail and outlet stores across the U.S. and Canada. It also owns Waterworks, a high-end bath-and-kitchen retailer with 14 showrooms.
While brick-and-mortar retailers have struggled mightily over the past few years thanks in part to the rise of e-commerce, RH has found success catering to the upper crust. And that success continued throughout the COVID pandemic as Americans, forced to work from home, decided to spend on improving their environs.
It's hard to tell whether this was an Oracle of Omaha buy, or a project of one of his lieutenants, Ted Weschler or Todd Combs. Buffett has been mostly mum on RH. Still, the stake fits broadly with the Oracle's worldview. Buffett stocks tend to be bets on America's growth, which certainly includes housing-related industries.
With 10.1% of RH's shares outstanding, Berkshire Hathaway is the company's second largest stockholder.
#28: Nu Holdings
- Shares held: 107,118,784
- Holding value: $826,957,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.23%
Buffett-backed Nu Holdings (NU, $4.35) went public late last year, giving Berkshire Hathaway a stake worth $1 billion as of Dec. 31.
The Brazilian financial technology company, which offers digital banking services to 48 million customers in Latin America, was one of the largest initial public offerings (IPOs) of 2021. The fintech's hook is that most retail banks in Brazil charge extremely high fees while offering poor customer service to boot.
The chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, for the record, has never been a fan of IPOs. He's said so, on the record, and has notably turned up his nose at some of the most heavily hyped stock market debuts.
But that didn't scare him away from NU, the second widely touted IPO he's backed in the past two years. Berkshire Hathaway backed Snowflake's (SNOW) blockbuster IPO when the cloud infrastructure unicorn hit the public market in fall 2020.
#27: McKesson (NEW POSITION)
- Shares held: 2,921,975
- Holding value: $894,504,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.25%
Buffett exited a pair of pharma/biotech holdings during the first quarter and heavily sold out of a third. But that doesn't mean he's done with the healthcare sector.
McKesson (MCK, $327.83) offers a number of healthcare solutions – including supply chain management, retail pharmacy, community oncology and specialty care – in 14 countries. For instance, its pharmaceutical distribution business serves 40,000 retail chains, long-term care providers and other customers, while its medical-surgical supplies business gets hundreds of thousands of products – everything from bandages to exam tables – to hospitals and doctor's offices across the nation.
McKesson is one of the few Buffett stocks that was bought on the way up. MCK shares surged by 23% during the first quarter and are currently up 32% year-to-date.
That said, Berkshire didn't buy too many of its shares. The new position comes to just about $900 million, or a quarter of a percent of Berkshire Hathaway's equity portfolio, putting it around the middle of the pack. Buffett, however, becomes a top-10 shareholder, as his 2.9 million shares represent a nearly 2% stake.
#26: Celanese (NEW POSITION)
- Shares held: 7,880,998
- Holding value: $1,125,958,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.31%
Berkshire became a top-five shareholder in Celanese (CE, $144.68) in Q1, initiating a position that accounts for 7.3% of the chemical company's shares outstanding.
The holding is less meaningful for Berkshire, however, comprising just 0.3% of its equity portfolio. With 7.9 million shares worth $1.1 billion, the relatively small size of the CE investments suggests that it was likely the doing of either Weschler or Combs.
Either way, the commanding stake in the firm known for acetic acid and vinyl acetate monomer gives Berkshire its only position in the materials sector.
In addition to giving Berkshire exposure to a part of the market that it had lacked, Celanese has strong long-term growth prospects and a commitment to returning cash to shareholders.
Analysts forecast the company to generate average annual earnings per share growth of more than 17% over the next three to five years, for one thing. Meanwhile, CE has raised its dividend annually for 14 years. Even better, from Berkshire's point of view, is the company's history of share repurchases.
Buffett generally prefers buybacks to dividends not only because they're more tax efficient (dividends get taxed twice), but because they increase an investor's claim on earnings without the investor having to lift a finger.
#25: Snowflake
- Shares held: 6,125,376
- Holding value: $1,403,507,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.39%
Warren Buffett made quite the splash in fall 2020 when he finally dove head-first into the Snowflake (SNOW, $144.51) initial public offering (IPO).
The chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, for the record, has never been a fan of IPOs. He's said so, on the record, and has notably turned up his nose at some of the most heavily hyped stock market debuts.
But that didn't stop him from being involved when Snowflake, a cloud infrastructure unicorn, hit the public markets with a blockbuster IPO.
Snowflake is a cloud-data warehousing company that plays in a roughly $55 billion annual market – a market that's expanding. The firm boasts more than 5,900 customers, 184 of which are each responsible for generating around $1 million in revenues within a 12-month period.
Snowflake is generating a lot of hype because it offers a way for companies to run their software on various cloud platforms, be they provided by Amazon.com, Microsoft (MSFT) or Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), to name just three.
#24: Mastercard
- Shares held: 3,986,648
- Holding value: $1,424,748,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.39%
Berkshire Hathaway might own Mastercard (MA, $329.73), but Warren Buffett has given credit where credit is due: namely, to his portfolio managers Combs and Weschler.
Buffett's biggest regret is not pulling the trigger sooner.
"I could have bought them as well, and looking back, I should have," Buffett said about Visa and Mastercard in 2018, referring to his own investment in American Express.
Mastercard, which boasts 974 million cards in use across the world, is one of several payments processors that count themselves as Buffett stocks.
That said, the position is a little lighter of late. Berkshire reduced its position by 7%, or 302,000 shares, during the fourth quarter, following a 6% trimming in Q3. That has brough MA's overall weight down to a little less than 0.4% of the equity portfolio.
Of course, Mastercard shares have returned some 1,300%, including dividends, since March 31, 2011 – several times better than the S&P 500 in that time – so it's hard to begrudge Warren Buffett a little profit-taking.
#23: Aon
- Shares held: 4,396,000
- Holding value: $1,431,470,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.39%
London-based Aon (AON, $277.82) offers a wide range of professional services, from insurance and reinsurance to pension administration and financial advising to health insurance. And it represented Buffett's lone new position in Q1 2021.
Like most insurance firms, you won't necessarily expect profits to grow in a perfectly straight line year after year. But revenues have improved without interruption over the past four years, and net income is up in three of the past five years.
That operational strength has led to superior returns against both the market and its peers. AON shares have provided a total return (price plus dividends) of 553% over the past decade, versus 268% for the S&P 500 and 242% for the SPDR S&P 500 Insurance ETF (KIE).
Berkshire hasn't exactly bet the farm on Aon. Even after adding 300,000 shares, or about 7%, during the second quarter, the stake is still worth just $1.4 billion, or 0.4% of the equity portfolio's assets. Nonetheless, it's one of the few stocks Buffett & Co. were bullish on amid a torrent of quarterly sales in 2021.
#22: Amazon.com
- Shares held: 533,300
- Holding value: $1,738,531,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.48%
Amazon.com (AMZN, $2,216.21) is now one of Warren Buffett's losing stocks.
Berkshire disclosed its initial 483,300-share position after the first quarter of 2019, then added another 54,000 shares during Q2. And while he enjoyed some brisk outperformance amid the COVID-19 outbreak, Buffett has since had to put up with a long period of flat performance that has turned into an outright rout in AMZN shares of late. Amazon stock is now up 50% since the start of Q1 2019, versus 70% for the S&P 500.
That's OK. If Buffett really feels like it, he can deflect the blame to one of his lieutenants. Even before Berkshire Hathaway submitted its Q1 2019 regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Buffett told CNBC: "One of the fellows in the office that manage money ... bought some Amazon, so it will show up (when that file is submitted)."
That said, Buffett has long been an admirer of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, he admitted in an interview. He also copped to wishing he had bought the stock sooner.
"Yeah, I've been a fan, and I've been an idiot for not buying (AMZN shares)," Buffett told CNBC.
Berkshire holds an insignificant 0.1% of Amazon's shares outstanding to barely keep it within the top 100 shareholders. Interestingly, Buffett marginally reduced the position by 4,000 shares in Q1 2020, but he hasn't touched the stake since.
#21: Visa
- Shares held: 8,297,460
- Holding value: $1,840,128,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.51%
Visa (V, $197.81) operates the world's largest payments network, and thus is well-positioned to benefit from the growth of cashless transactions and digital mobile payments. Like Mastercard, Visa was the idea of lieutenants Todd Combs and/or Ted Weschler (Buffett won't tell). Also like Mastercard, Buffett wishes Berkshire had bought more.
And like Mastercard, Buffett's Visa position got a little smaller in the back half of 2021. The stake in V was nipped by 4%, or 425,000 shares, in Q3, then by a more substantial 13%, or 1.3 million shares, in Q4.
Berkshire Hathaway first bought Visa in the third quarter of 2011, and it has proven to be a mammoth winner. Including dividends, Visa has delivered a whopping total return of 903%, well more than double the S&P 500's 339% total return in that time. Visa also is a dividend-growth machine, ramping up its payout by 127% over the past five years alone.
"If I had been as smart as Ted or Todd, I would have (bought Visa)," Buffett told shareholders at the 2018 annual meeting.
Visa accounts for a modest but not insignificant holding at 0.5% of Buffett's portfolio. At the same time, Berkshire's half-percent stake in Visa doesn't even put it among the top 25 investors.
#20: Charter Communications
- Shares held: 3,828,941
- Holding value: $2,088,764,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.57%
Charter Communications (CHTR, $463.34) markets cable TV, internet, telephone and other services under the Spectrum brand, which is America's second-largest cable operator behind Comcast (CMCSA). It greatly expanded its reach in 2016 when it acquired Time Warner Cable and sister company Bright House Networks.
And it's also yet another Buffett stock with a John Malone connection – albeit a small one now. Malone served on the telecom and media company's board of directors from 2013 until 2018, when he stepped down to concentrate his focus on a smaller group of companies. (He does remain a director emeritus, however.)
Buffett entered CHTR in the second quarter of 2014, but he has seemingly lost his love for the telecom company in recent years. His position has been trimmed down from 9.4 million shares in early 2017 to just 3.8 million shares as of Berkshire's most recent 13F, including a 370,000-share reduction (or 8%) in Q4 2021.
Charter remains a decent position in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio, at 0.57% of its equity assets.
#19: Paramount Global (NEW POSITION)
- Shares held: 68,947,760
- Holding value: $2,606,915,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.72%
Paramount Global (PARA, $28.02) is a mass media and entertainment organization that resulted from 2019's merger between Viacom and CBS. Its properties include Paramount Pictures' film and television studios, CBS, The CW, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, BET, CMT and Showtime.
It also gives Buffett three more streaming properties – Paramount+, Showtime OTT and Pluto TV – to add alongside Apple's (AAPL) Apple TV+ and Amazon.com's (AMZN) Amazon Prime.
Admittedly, Paramount+ is something of a second-tier streamer. Its 62 million subscribers pales in comparison to the likes of Netflix's (NFLX) 221 million subscribers or Amazon Prime's 149 million.
While it's not a traditional value category, PARA very much looks like a Buffett value bet. Paramount's shares trade at just 9 times estimates and at a price/earnings-to-growth (PEG) ratio of around 0.8 (anything less than one is considered undervalued). Shares now yield more than 3% at current prices, too.
Buffett dug in with both hands, too. The $2.6 billion buy-in during the first quarter makes Berkshire Paramount's top shareholder with an 11.3% stake. That said, PARA isn't a huge presence in the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio at a weight of 0.7%.
#18: General Motors
- Shares held: 62,045,847
- Holding value: $2,713,886,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.75%
Warren Buffett first took a stake in General Motors (GM, $37.10) in early 2012. And over the past few years, he became even more bullish on the world's fourth-largest auto manufacturer by production, upping Berkshire Hathaway's holdings in 2018, 2019 and as recently as Q3 2020.
Buffett started to distance himself in 2021. Berkshire reduced its ownership in the car company by another 10% in Q2, or 7 million shares. That follows cuts of 5.5 million shares (7.6%) in the first three months of 2021, and 7.5 million shares (9.0%) during the final quarter of 2020.
But Buffett is back to buying in 2022, upping his stake by 2 million shares, or 3%, during the first quarter.
General Motors has always looked like a classic Buffett value bet. After all, there are fewer American brands more iconic than GM. He also has sung the praises of CEO Mary Barra on several occasions. And the stock perennially trades at crazy-cheap multiples of expected earnings.
GM is still a relatively small position, accounting for less than 1% of Berkshire's portfolio, but the recent buying, if nothing else, shows Buffett hasn't given up on this iconic name.
#17: Verisign
- Shares held: 12,815,613
- Holding value: $2,850,961,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.78%
Berkshire bought Verisign (VRSN, $164.55) – an internet infrastructure service company that quite literally keeps the world connected online and acts as a domain registry for the .com, .net and other top-level domains – during a dip in the final quarter of 2012.
The company's dominance of the space exemplifies Buffett's love of deep moats, and the stake has paid off well. VRSN hasn't done well in the past year, down 25% versus a 2% loss for the S&P 500. But it has raced ahead by 325% since the start of 2013, which is still well ahead of the S&P 500's 238% total return.
VRSN also is a teachable example of how stocks aren't good or bad in a bubble. One investor's brilliant purchase often is, depending on timing, another investor's biggest failure.
Stanley Druckenmiller, a famed former hedge fund manager, didn't have nearly as much luck with Verisign. Druckenmiller made a $200 million short on tech stocks in early 1999 while investing for George Soros' Quantum Fund, but lost $600 million in the trade. He then tried to win it back via a big $6 billion buy-in of tech stocks including Verisign ... but he lost $3 billion in six weeks as VRSN and several other recent purchases flopped, making it one of the "smart money's" worst stock calls of all time.
Berkshire Hathaway currently is the largest institutional investor in VRSN shares. It owns a little less than 13 million shares, giving it 11.6% control in the company.
#16: Liberty Sirius XM Group
- Shares held (Class A / Class C): 20,207,680 / 43,208,291
- Holding value (Class A / Class C): $923,692,000 / $1,975,915,000
- Percent of portfolio (Total): 0.80%
Near the end of 2021, Berkshire dumped its holdings in Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI). And yet, Buffett still boasts not one but two different stakes in the satellite radio leader.
Buffett still maintains interest in Sirius via a pair of tracking stocks: Liberty Sirius XM Group Series A (LSXMA, $39.01) and Liberty Sirius XM Group Series C (LSXMK, $38.95).
Liberty Media has for years held a large stake in Sirius XM Holdings. But in 2015, the company actually recapitalized, offering (among other things) several tracking stocks that allowed investors to participate in the performance of Liberty's Sirius XM investment directly rather than get it piecemeal through Liberty Media itself.
While that stake has largely been left alone over the past few quarters, Buffett decided to amplify his Sirius bet by tacking on another 5.3 million or so shares of LSXMA, or a 35% bump from the third quarter of 2021.
Berkshire is the largest institutional shareholder in each of the tracking stocks, holding 19.2% of Liberty Sirius XM's C shares and 20.7% of the A shares.
#15: Citigroup (NEW POSITION)
- Shares held: 55,155,797
- Holding value: $2,945,319,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.81%
After Uncle Warren ended his longtime relationship with Wells Fargo, he rekindled things with another old financial flame – Citigroup (C, $47.46) – entering a new stake roughly 20 years after he exited the last one.
Financial stocks broadly failed to gain any traction during the first quarter of 2022, but Citigroup really struggled, declining by roughly 12% between the start of the year and March 31. However, that dip might have been the push Buffett needed to enter the nation's fourth-largest bank by assets.
Citigroup has been the weakest of the Big Four banks over the past year, losing more than a third of its value over that time. That has in turn made Citigroup look like quite the value play; shares currently trade at just 7 times next year's earnings estimates and now yield north of 4%.
This was a relatively big splash by Berkshire, too. The nearly $3 billion position immediately puts Citigroup within the holding company's top 15 positions. It also translates into a 2.8% stake Warren Buffett the fourth-largest shareholder in the bank, behind fund giants Vanguard (8.5%), BlackRock (8.3%) and State Street (4.7%).
#14: Kroger
- Shares held: 57,985,263
- Holding value: $3,326,615,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.92%
Warren Buffett once again reduced Berkshire Hathaway's exposure to one of his more recent favorite stock picks in Q1. The holding company shed 3.4 million shares, or 5% of its stake, in supermarket operator Kroger (KR, $53.20).
The move followed another slight reduction in Q4, when Berkshire pared the stake by 350,000 shares, or less than 0.01%.
Berkshire Hathaway turned a few heads during the fourth quarter of 2019, when it initiated its 18.9 million-share position in Kroger. But given what was to come, it now looks like a savvy pick.
After all, the massive supermarket chain treated shareholders well during the worst of the pandemic and continued to outperform in 2021. Shares are up some 93% with dividends included since the start of 2020, versus just 29% for the S&P 500.
Kroger operates roughly 2,750 retail food stores operating under such banners as Dillons, Ralphs, Harris Teeter and its namesake brand, as well as 1,585 gas stations and even 170 jewelry stores under banners including Fred Meyer Jewelers and Littman Jewelers.
With about 58 million shares total, Berkshire Hathaway is the third-largest owner of Kroger shares, with its 7.9% interest coming behind only Vanguard (11.0%) and BlackRock (9.9%).
The old-economy value play is a natural Buffett stock, right in line with the Oracle's traditional interests.
#13: Bank of New York Mellon
- Shares held: 72,357,453
- Holding value: $3,591,100,000
- Percent of portfolio: 0.99%
Bank of New York Mellon (BK, $43.24) truly stands apart from the pack.
Warren Buffett has been an admirer of BNY Mellon for some time, and despite his dwindling love for banks, he has largely left his BK stake alone. He did trim the position a little in Q2 2020, but that's nothing compared to the heavy-handed haircuts that Berkshire's other bank holdings have suffered over the past couple years.
Bank of New York Mellon is a custodian bank that holds assets for institutional clients and provides back-end accounting services. Its roots actually go all the way back to 1784, when Bank of New York was founded by a group including Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Today, BK is the nation's ninth-largest bank by assets, according to data from the Federal Reserve.
Berkshire Hathaway first took a position in BK back during Q3 2010, when it paid an estimated average price of $43.90. Since then, Berkshire Hathaway has become the bank's largest investor at 9.0% of shares. (Vanguard is No. 2 at 8.1%.)
#12: HP (NEW POSITION)
- Shares held: 104,476,035
- Holding value: $3,792,480,000
- Percent of portfolio: 1.04%
Buffett dipped into Berkshire's massive cash pile in Q1 to initiate a commanding position in HP (HPQ, $37.51). And this big new bet on a PC and printer maker appears to be another classic Buffett value play.
HPQ generates a steady and ample stream of free cash flow (FCF) – the cash left after expenses, capital expenditures and financial commitments have been met – or an average of nearly $4 billion a year over the past five years.
Industry analysts expect that FCF number to increase and – most importantly – to flow into investors' pockets.
Free cash flow supports dividends, and it's no secret Buffett adores dividends. HPQ, for its part, has been not only a generous dividend payer, but a dividend grower. The company has increased its payout annually for 13 years. The most recent hike came in November – a 29% increase in the quarterly disbursement to 25 cents per share.
True, the market for PCs and printers is hardly overflowing with growth prospects. But HPQ has a solid track record of slow but steady gains on the top line. Wall Street analysts see this incremental revenue growth continuing for years, all helped by recent strategic acquisitions.
And then there's HPQ's valuation, which Buffett appears to have found irresistible.
Buffett, with 11.4% of HP's shares outstanding, snatched up a boring but dependable cash machine at a bargain price.
#11: DaVita
- Shares held: 36,095,570
- Holding value: $4,082,770,000
- Percent of portfolio: 1.12%
DaVita (DVA, $99.90) was a largely undisturbed holding in the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio, at least up until in 2020. Then Buffett snipped 1% of his stake in the kidney care provider and dialysis center operator in Q1 2020. He cut it by another 5% in Q3.
But Buffett left the position alone in 2021, and he hasn't touched it so far in 2022, either.
DaVita serves patients via more than 3,000 dialysis centers in the U.S. and nine other countries. Aging baby boomers and a graying population in many developed markets should provide a strong, secular tailwind.
Berkshire disclosed its initial position in DaVita during 2012's first quarter. Given that DVA was a large position of Ted Weschler's Peninsula Capital in his pre-Berkshire days, it wasn't unreasonable to assume that it was his pick. Weschler confirmed as much in 2014.
DaVita's shares have been a disappointment, however. DVA has underperformed the S&P 500 by roughly 127 percentage points since Q1 2012, including a 3% loss in 2021.
For now, Buffett is DaVita's largest shareholder by a country mile. Its stake of 36.1 million shares represents 37% of the company's shares outstanding.
#10: Activision Blizzard
- Shares held: 64,315,222
- Holding value: $5,152,292,000
- Percent of portfolio: 1.42%
We know that either Ted Weschler or Todd Combs first bought shares in video game publisher Activision Blizzard (ATVI, $78.00) in Q4. Buffett said so.
But it was the Oracle of Omaha himself who upped the position by 338% in Q1.
The original purchase was simply great timing. In mid-January, Microsoft (MSFT) agreed to pay $68.7 billion, or $95 a share in cash, for ATVI. At the time the deal was announced, the software titan was paying a premium of roughly 30% to the video game maker's most recent closing price.
BRK.B, however, bought more than 14.6 million shares in ATVI – worth $975.2 million as of Dec. 31 – during the fourth quarter at an estimated average price of $66.53 per share. That was a quick score.
As for the latest purchases, that's a bet by Buffett that the deal will indeed close. It's an arbitrage play, and we know this because Buffett said as much at Berkshire's annual meeting.
"It is my purchases, not the manager who bought it some months ago," Buffett said about the latest Activision buys. "If the deal goes through, we make some money, and if the deal doesn't go through, who knows what happens."
Activision shareholders approved the company's sale to Microsoft, but some investors are betting the deal could be scuttled by antitrust regulators.
#9: U.S. Bancorp
- Shares held: 126,417,887
- Holding value: $6,719,111,000
- Percent of portfolio: 1.85%
U.S. Bancorp (USB, $48.27) is the nation's fifth-largest bank by assets and America's biggest regional bank. It'a also one of the oldest Buffett stocks in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio; the Oracle of Omaha initiated his position in the first quarter of 2006.
Buffett is notoriously tight-lipped about U.S. Bancorp and, at least historically speaking, has rarely touched the position. But he clipped it by another 1% in Q3, or by 2.5 million shares, following trimmings of 0.6% and 1.1% in Q2 and Q1, respectively.
Scraping just a bit off the USB stake stands in stark contrast to what Buffett has done with so many of Berkshire's other bank stocks, however. Mostly, he's taken a hatchet to them. And it's not like the regional lender's returns have justified holding on when Buffett has abandoned so many of its peers. USB lags considerably over every major trailing time period.
U.S. Bancorp shareholders no doubt appreciate Berkshire's vote of confidence. The holding company's 8.5% stake makes it the largest institutional shareholder, ahead of Vanguard (7.5%) and BlackRock (6.6%).
#8: Occidental Petroleum (NEW POSITION)
- Shares held: 136,373,000
- Holding value: $7,737,804,000
- Percent of portfolio: 2.13%
Warren Buffett has been absolutely hoovering up stock in Occidental Petroleum (OXY, $67.72).
In a flurry of Q1 purchases, Berkshire bought more than 136 million OXY shares, or 14.6% of the integrated oil and gas company's shares outstanding.
The stake, worth $7.7 billion as of March 31, coincides with the ongoing melt-up in energy prices, which was sparked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Global benchmark Brent crude oil futures hit nearly $140 a barrel at one point during the first three months of the year.
It also helps that oil tends to be a good hedge against inflation, which is rising at a pace not seen in four decades.
Like the rest of the industry, OXY is flush with cash, which it is returning to shareholders through dividends and buybacks – both of which Buffett loves.
The Occidental common shares Buffett purchased only added to its already substantial exposure to the energy firm, which includes $10 billion worth of 8% preferred shares, as well as 84 million warrants to purchase OXY stock. Occidental shares must trade above the warrants' exercise price of $59.62 for the warrants to be in the money.
Berkshire is Occidental's largest shareholder by a wide margin. Vanguard, with a 10.9% ownership stake, comes in a distant second.
#7: Moody's
- Shares held: 24,669,778
- Holding value: $8,323,829,000
- Percent of portfolio: 2.29%
Moody's (MCO, $287.76) is a business and financial services firm best known for its Moody's Investors Service credit rating arm – one of the three major American business credit ratings agencies alongside Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings. It also offers financial analysis technology via Moody's Analytics.
MCO is a longtime, significant holding in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio – and an ironic one to boot.
"Uncle Warren" first dipped his toe in during the first quarter of 2001, and he has been content with his investment of late, leaving his 24.7 million-share stake unchanged over the past couple of years.
The funny thing about Berkshire's holding in Moody's is that Buffett said back in 2010 that "Our job is to rate credit ourselves. We do not outsource that to ratings agencies." Yet Berkshire Hathaway is the largest institutional holder of MCO, owning 13.3% of the financial firm. (Vanguard is a distant second at 7.3%.)
The holding is meaningful on Berkshire's end, too. At more than 2% of assets, Moody's is one of the top 10 Buffett stocks.
#6: Kraft Heinz
- Shares held: 325,634,818
- Holding value: $12,826,755,000
- Percent of portfolio: 3.53%
Warren Buffett was one of the driving forces behind the 2015 merger of packaged-food giant Kraft and ketchup purveyor Heinz to create Kraft Heinz (KHC, $44.08). It's Berkshire's fifth-largest stock investment with a market value of nearly $12 billion.
But it has been a dog, and Buffett likely still regrets his participation in what was one of his biggest deals of the past decade.
Berkshire Hathaway recorded a $3 billion non-cash loss from an impairment of intangible assets in 2018, "arising almost entirely from our equity interest in Kraft Heinz," Buffett wrote in his 2019 letter to shareholders. In early 2019, KHC wrote down the value of its brands by nearly $15 billion. In 2020, Fitch downgraded the company's debt to junk status. Its second-quarter earnings beat expectations, but Kraft still had to record yet another $2.9 billion in impairments.
Kraft's operational performance has at least improved since then, and shares are holding up well amid this recent market rout. But KHC still has a lot of catching-up to do to shed its "dud" status in the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio.
"I was wrong (about KHC)," Buffett flatly admitted on CNBC in 2019. Buffett says he overpaid, and it's difficult to disagree. Even including dividends, Kraft's shares are still down 17% since Sept. 30, 2015.
Berkshire Hathaway remains the company's second-largest shareholder with a 26.6% stake. Private investment firm 3G Capital – who teamed up with Berkshire in 2013 to purchase H.J. Heinz – is tops at 41.7%.
#5: Coca-Cola
- Shares held: 400,000,000
- Holding value: $24,799,999,000
- Percent of portfolio: 6.82%
Buffett, an unabashed fan of Cherry Coke, started investing in Coca-Cola (KO, $65.96) stock soon after the stock market crash of 1987. In his 1988 letter to Berkshire shareholders, Buffett said he expected to hold on to the stock "for a long time."
Three decades later, he has proven true to his word. Berkshire is KO's largest shareholder with 9.2% of its shares outstanding, and Coca-Cola remains among the most iconic of Buffett stocks.
Coca-Cola made a brief appearance as a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the 1930s. Shares were added back to the Dow in 1987, and they've remained a stalwart member ever since.
While Coca-Cola's stock performance hasn't impressed – its 137% total return over the past decade is well behind the S&P 500's 270% return – it has been an income investor's dream. The beverage maker has increased its dividend annually for 60 consecutive years.
#4: Chevron
- Shares held: 159,178,117
- Holding value: $25,918,973,000
- Percent of portfolio: 7.13%
Chevron (CVX, $173.01) is the only energy stock left in the Dow Jones Industrial Average after Exxon Mobil (XOM) was removed in 2020. It's also the sector's sole representative among Warren Buffett's stocks.
And while Buffett can't seem to make up his mind about whether he likes or loathes CVX, the needle is definitely pointing toward "like" after the first quarter of 2022.
Berkshire Hathaway initiated a position of more than 48 million shares in the fourth quarter of 2020 valued at $4.1 billion. Although energy prices weren't expected to make huge moves in 2021 after a considerable rebound in late 2020, the outlook for oil and gas was much improved and expected to get better as the global economy recovered.
Chevron specifically was well positioned, as it took advantage of the worst of the industry's woes in July 2020 by acquiring Noble Energy in a $5 billion all-stock transaction. The company's scale, asset quality and reserves made it one of the healthiest players in an industry where a lot of players were on injured reserve. Also noteworthy was its standing as a Dividend Aristocrat, with 35 years of uninterrupted dividend growth currently under its belt.
And yet, Buffett reversed course in Q1 2021. In addition to booting Suncor Energy (SU) from the portfolio, Berkshire jettisoned a little more than half of its CVX position, unloading 24.8 million shares. He followed that up by dropping another 550,000 or so shares, or 2%, in Q2, to bring the position down to 23.1 million shares.
Buffett, however, has come back with vengeance. He upped Berkshire's Chevron stake by 24% in the third quarter, by 33% in the fourth quarter, and now by more than 300% in Q1 2022.
CVX now makes up well more than 7% of the Berkshire portfolio and is a top-five position. Meanwhile, at 8.2% of Chevron shares, Berkshire is the firm's second-largest investor, behind only Vanguard (8.6%).
#3: American Express
- Shares held: 151,610,700
- Holding value: $28,351,201,000
- Percent of portfolio: 7.80%
American Express (AXP, $156.43) continues to endure as one of Warren Buffett's favorite investments.
Buffett likes to say this his preferred holding period is "forever," and AmEx is one of the premier examples. Berkshire entered its initial stake in the credit card company in 1963, when a struggling AmEx badly needed capital. Buffett obliged, getting favorable terms on his investment. He has played the role of white knight many times over the years, including during the 2008 financial crisis, as a means to get stakes in good companies at a discount. (Think: Goldman Sachs and Bank of America.)
No one would've been surprised if Buffett had trimmed his AXP position sometime during the course of 2020. After all, Berkshire dumped financial stocks all year, and he even trimmed his stakes in payments processors during Q2.
American Express is both. And yet the position remained fully intact across the year.
Berkshire Hathaway, which owns fully 20% of American Express' shares outstanding, is by far the company's largest shareholder. No. 2 Vanguard owns 6.2%.
Buffett praised the power of AmEx's brand at Berkshire's 2019 annual meeting. "It's a fantastic story, and I'm glad we own 18% of it," he said. Of course he's glad: A roughly 1,000% total return over the past quarter-century would make most investors glow.
#2: Bank of America
- Shares held: 1,010,100,606
- Holding value: $41,636,348,000
- Percent of portfolio: 11.45%
Buffett spent most of 2020 and 2021 hacking and slashing at his various bank-stock holdings. But he remained as committed as ever to Bank of America (BAC, $34.81).
Buffett's interest in BAC dates back to 2011, when he swooped in to shore up the firm's finances in the wake of the Great Recession. In exchange for investing $5 billion in the firm, Berkshire received preferred stock yielding 6% and warrants giving Berkshire the right to purchase BofA common stock at a steep discount. (The Oracle of Omaha exercised those warrants in 2017, netting a $12 billion profit in the process.)
Warren Buffett let go of 2.2 million BAC shares in Q4 2019, but that represented a mere 0.2% reduction. And while he cut heavily into various bank holdings in 2020, he actually added to Berkshire's already large position in Q3 of that year by snapping up more than 85 million shares.
The stake in BAC, worth nearly $42 billion, accounts for 11.5% of the holding company's total portfolio value. Meanwhile, Berkshire is Bank of America's largest shareholder, at 12.3% of its shares outstanding.
#1: Apple
- Shares held: 890,923,410
- Holding value: $155,564,138,100
- Percent of portfolio: 42.79%
Warren Buffett's love affair with Apple (AAPL, $145.54) continues.
During the first quarter of 2022, Berkshire used a brief dip to tack on another 3.8 million shares, or 0.3%, to its already massive holdings. And honestly, Buffett wishes it had been even more.
"Unfortunately the stock went back up, so I stopped," he told CNBC following the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting. "Otherwise who knows how much we would have bought?"
Buffett has said that "I think of [Apple] as our third business." It might as well be. The tech giant represents more than 40% of the assets in the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio. And Berkshire is Apple's third-largest investor with an 890 million-share stake representing about 5.5% of all shares outstanding. Only Vanguard and BlackRock – giants of the passively managed index fund universe – hold more Apple stock.
The Oracle of Omaha has only occasionally dabbled in technology stocks. But he bought Apple with two fists, and he's more than happy to discuss his ardor for AAPL. As he has said more than once on CNBC, he loves the power of Apple's brand and its ecosystem of products (such as the iPhone and iPad) and services (such as Apple Pay and iTunes).
"It's probably the best business I know in the world," Buffett said a year ago. "And that is a bigger commitment that we have in any business except insurance and the railroad."
This has been an exceptionally fruitful investment for Buffett. AAPL shares have returned 478% since the end of Q1 2016, when Berkshire initiated its stake. That's more than four times better than the broader market.
