Warren Buffett's stock picks aren't what they used to be. Indeed, the Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) equity portfolio has changed dramatically over the past few years.
Although old-guard favorites such as American Express (AXP) and Coca-Cola (KO) still form the core of the portfolio, Buffett & Co. have taken a shine to names such as Apple (AAPL) and Amazon.com (AMZN).
One thing that hasn't changed, however, is Buffett's preference for maintaining a highly concentrated portfolio.
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Excluding the company's Japanese brokerage stocks and other overseas holdings, Apple alone accounted for 26% of Berkshire's portfolio as of March 31. That's down from more than 40% the year prior.
Furthermore, Berkshire's top five holdings comprise 70% its U.S. equity portfolio value, while the top 10 account for 88%.
As Buffett likes to say, diversification is for those who don't know what they're doing.
Also please note that Buffett handles the largest positions in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio. Buffett says his co-managers – Ted Weschler and Todd Combs, who is CEO of Geico – act independently.
They're thought to manage about 10% of the portfolio. Buffettologists generally assume Berkshire's smaller buys and sells are the work of these colleagues. This will change when Buffett retires as CEO of his holding company at year's end and Greg Abel, head of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, steps into the role.
Regardless, whether we're talking about Berkshire's biggest bets or the scores of stocks it maintains at the margins, Buffett's focus shifted after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Buffett owned airline stocks at the start of 2020; now he holds none. Banks were aces among Buffett stocks to begin 2020; Berkshire soon kicked most of them to the curb.
And it seems like only yesterday that Buffett was an enthusiastic buyer of select pharmaceutical names. Today, most of those positions have been closed out too.
If you want to know which stocks Warren Buffett is buying and selling, look no further than the Berkshire Hathaway's holdings.
Price, share totals and other data as of March 31, 2025. Sources: Berkshire Hathaway's SEC Form 13F filed May 15, 2025, for the reporting period ended March 31, 2025; and WhaleWisdom.
The Berkshire Hathaway portfolio
Company | Shares held | Holding value | Percent of portfolio |
|---|---|---|---|
Apple (AAPL) | 300,000,000 | $66,639,000,000 | 25.76% |
American Express (AXP) | 151,610,700 | $40,790,858,835 | 15.77% |
Coca-Cola (KO) | 400,000,000 | $28,648,000,000 | 11.07% |
Bank of America (BAC) | 631,573,531 | $26,355,563,449 | 10.19% |
Chevron (CVX) | 118,610,534 | $19,842,356,232 | 7.67% |
Occidental Petroleum (OXY) | 264,941,431 | $13,077,509,034 | 5.06% |
Moody's (MCO) | 24,669,778 | $11,488,468,917 | 4.44% |
Kraft Heinz (KHC) | 325,634,818 | $9,909,067,512 | 3.83% |
Chubb (CB) | 27,033,784 | $8,163,932,430 | 3.16% |
Kroger (KR) | 50,000,000 | $3,384,499,999 | 1.31% |
Verisign (VRSN) | 13,289,880 | $3,373,901,836 | 1.30% |
Visa (V) | 8,297,460 | $2,907,927,832 | 1.12% |
Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI) | 119,776,692 | $2,700,365,521 | 1.04% |
Constellation Brands (STZ) | 12,009,000 | $2,203,891,680 | 0.85% |
Mastercard (MA) | 3,986,648 | $2,185,161,502 | 0.84% |
Amazon.com (AMZN) | 10,000,000 | $1,902,600,000 | 0.74% |
Aon (AON) | 4,100,000 | $1,636,269,000 | 0.63% |
Capital One Financial (COF) | 7,150,000 | $1,281,995,000 | 0.50% |
Domino's Pizza (DPZ) | 2,620,613 | $1,204,040,643 | 0.47% |
Ally Financial (ALLY) | 29,000,000 | $1,057,630,000 | 0.41% |
T-Mobile US (TMUS) | 3,883,145 | $1,035,673,603 | 0.40% |
Liberty Media (LLYVK) | 10,917,661 | $743,929,420 | 0.29% |
Charter Communications (CHTR) | 1,984,259 | $731,258,969 | 0.28% |
Louisiana Pacific (LPX) | 5,664,793 | $521,047,660 | 0.20% |
Pool (POOL) | 1,464,000 | $466,064,400 | 0.18% |
Liberty Media (LLYVA) | 4,986,588 | $335,298,177 | 0.13% |
Formula One Group (FWONK) | 3,512,000 | $316,115,120 | 0.12% |
Heico (HEI) | 1,162,088 | $245,165,705 | 0.09% |
NVR (NVR) | 11,112 | $80,499,662 | 0.03% |
Diageo (DEO) | 227,750 | $23,865,923 | 0.01% |
Jefferies (JEF) | 433,558 | $23,225,702 | 0.01% |
Lennar (LEN) | 152,572 | $16,641,028 | 0.01% |
Liberty Latin America Class A (LILA) | 2,630,792 | $16,652,913 | 0.01% |
Atlanta Braves Holdings (BATRK) | 223,645 | $8,948,036 | less than 0.01% |
Liberty Latin America Class C (LILAK) | 1,284,020 | $7,973,764 | less than 0.01% |
Stocks Warren Buffett is buying
Berkshire Hathaway more than doubled its position in Constellation Brands (STZ), the beer and wine and spirit maker whose brands include Corona Extra, Modelo Especial and Robert Mondavi Winery.
The holding company upped its stake by 113%, or 6.4 million shares, bringing its total position to 12 million shares worth $2.2 billion as of the end of Q1.
Berkshire initiated the position at the end of 2024. With a weighting of 0.85%, STZ is the 15th largest holding in the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio.
In other buys, Berkshire upped its stake in Verisign (VRSN) for a second consecutive quarter, this time by 0.14%, or 18,423 shares, bringing its total position to 13.3 million shares.
With a value of $3.4 billion as of March 31, the domain name registry services provider is BRK.B's 12th largest position, accounting for 1.3% of the portfolio.
It should come as little surprise that Berkshire continued to add to some favored holdings.
Buffett boosted the conglomerate's investment in Occidental Petroleum (OXY) fractionally, or by 0.29%. With 265 million shares worth $13.1 billion, OXY is Berkshire's sixth most important position.
Note that OXY shares spent a good part of Q1 trading below $50 a share. It wouldn't be the first time Buffett went bargain hunting in OXY stock when it fell below such levels. Berkshire initiated the OXY position in the first quarter of 2022.
Elsewhere, Berkshire continued to build up stakes in some recent additions, such as Domino's Pizza (DPZ) and Pool (POOL).
The holding company initiated both stakes in the third quarter of 2024, and the sizes suggest they were not Buffett's picks. But let's take a brief look anyway.
The conglomerate increased its stake in pizza chain DPZ by another 10%. With 2.6 million shares worth $1.2 billion at Q1's end, DPZ accounts for less than 0.5% of the portfolio, or its 20th largest holding.
As for Pool, which describes itself as the largest distributor of supplies, equipment and machinery for swimming pools worldwide, Berkshire Hathaway more than doubled its stake, buying another 865,311 shares.
POOL's weight of 0.18% makes it the 26th largest holding in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio. Suffice to say, this name won't be all that important to the conglomerate's overall results.
Berkshire also continued to add to its position in Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI), upping its stake by less than 2%. Berkshire now holds 119.8 million shares worth $2.7 billion as of March 31.
The stake further cements BRK.B's position as SIRI's largest shareholder, owning 35% of its common stock outstanding.
Berkshire also increased its stake by 10% in aerospace and defense company Heico (HEI). With a portfolio weight of 0.09%, or the 29th largest position, HEIA is essentially immaterial.
Lastly, Berkshire received confidential treatment for a position it was building in Q1. Regulators may grant an exemption from reporting in order to prevent other market participants from front-running the stock.
Stocks Warren Buffett is selling
Buffett once again sold Bank of America (BAC) stock in Q1 – and slashed exposure to some other big financial names.
BAC is the most important position, however, having been a major holding since 2017. Berkshire reduced its stake in the nation's second-largest bank by assets by another 7.2% in Q1, selling almost 49 million shares.
With 631.6 million shares worth more than $26 billion as of March 31, BAC is Berkshire's fourth-largest holding, accounting for more than 10% of the portfolio value.
In addition to BAC, Berkshire once again pared its stake in Capital One Financial (COF), this time by 4%. At 0.5% of the portfolio, COF is the holding company's 19th most important investment. (Buffett sold COF last quarter too.)
And as for Citigroup, Berskhire closed out the position entirely after slashing it by 74% over the course of the prior quarter.
In other moves, Berkshire continued to lighten up on Charter Communications (CHTR), as it did the previous two quarters. CHTR is now less than 0.3% of the portfolio value.
Other stocks Berkshire continued to ease up on included Formula One Group (FWONK), T–Mobile US (TMUS) and DaVita (DVA).
Finally, Berkshire exited what was left of its small stake in Nu Holdings (NU), a position it initiated in the first quarter of 2021.
Berkshire's top five holdings
As noted above, Warren Buffett has always maintained a highly concentrated portfolio. Indeed, he's said that "diversification makes very little sense for anyone who knows what they're doing."
The stocks below accounted for 70% of Berkshire's total U.S. equities portfolio value as of the end of Q1. If you want to know what's driving the bulk of the Buffett's returns, check out the names below.
Apple
Warren Buffett has called Apple "Berkshire's third business," so it should come as no surprise that the iPhone maker routinely takes the top spot among the holding company's positions.
True, Berkshire pared its stake in Apple in 2024, but Buffett assured shareholders he adores AAPL as much as ever at the annual meeting. BRK.B's CEO took pains to explain that the iPhone maker is still, er, the Apple of his eye. (It would have been embarrassing not to, considering Apple CEO Tim Cook attended the event in person.)
For the record, the sales were for tax purposes. The greatest long-term investor of all time said that AAPL is "even better" than American Express or Coca-Cola, two "wonderful" businesses that Berkshire has owned since the early 1960s and late 1980s, respectively.
As Apple's fifth-largest shareholder, Berkshire's continuing interest in the iPhone maker has marketwide implications. No wonder the market was relieved when Buffett didn't sell even more AAPL stock in Q1.
American Express
Buffett likes credit-card companies. Berkshire owns substantial stakes in payments processors Visa (V) and Mastercard (MA) but he really loves American Express.
Buffett took his first stake in AmEx in the 1960s, and it’s still paying off a half-century later.
There's a lot to love about AmEx: Its management is strong, it's a dominant brand in the industry, and it generates copious amounts of free cash flow – the money left over after essential capital expenditures are made that can be used to finance dividends and stock buybacks.
The current yield on the dividend isn't eye-catching, but it is safe and growing. And the stock is only slightly more volatile than the broader market. Those are attributes that will help long-term investors sleep better at night.
Coca-Cola
Buffett famously watched Coca-Cola for 52 years before investing in the stock.
He finally took the plunge in 1988. "We expect to hold these securities for a long time," Buffett wrote back then of his new stake in Coke in a letter to Berkshire shareholders. "In fact, when we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever."
As of the end of Q1 2025, Berkshire owned 9.3% of Coca-Cola’s outstanding shares. Analysts like the stock's prospects, too. Wall Street gives KO a consensus recommendation of Buy, with strong conviction.
Bank of America
Bank of America is Berkshire Hathaway's fourth-largest holding. Buffett first acquired BAC stock in Q3 2017. Berkshire is the bank's largest institutional shareholder.
In an April 2023 media appearance, Buffett said that he unloaded many of the holding company's bank stocks because he didn't think they were near as solid investments as they once were. As for Bank of America, he said this about the bank and its CEO:
"I like [CEO] Brian Moynihan enormously. And I just don't wanna, I don't wanna sell it," the then 92-year-old CEO told CNBC's Becky Quick.
"But I did sell banks that we'd owned for 25 or 30 years. And if they asked me why I did it, I told them – I just think the system isn't set up quite right in terms of connecting punishment to culprits on something that's important," Buffett added.
Chevron
Thanks to the outlook for crude oil prices, the energy sector is enjoying steady and predictable free cash flow. Chevron, the only energy name among all 30 Dow Jones stocks, is returning some of this cash to shareholders through dividends and buybacks.
Make no mistake: there are few things Buffett likes more than dividends and buybacks.
It also helps that oil is a solid hedge against inflation. With inflation still running ahead of the Federal Reserve's 2% target, commodities should remain in favor.
Berkshire's massive pile of cash, equivalents and short-term investments is much better put to use in an asset like Chevron under such conditions.
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