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

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett continued his bank bloodletting in Q4 2020, but he also initiated a few exciting new positions.

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Warren Buffett was busy in the last three months of 2020.

OK, maybe not Redditor-trading-GameStop busy. But by the time the tape settled at the end of Q4, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) had shuffled positions in 21 different companies.

Not only did Buffett buy new stakes in two of the most recognizable stocks in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, but he also ditched a couple of other big-name blue chips and continued to bail on bank stocks.

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 fourth quarter of 2020, based on the 13F the company filed on Feb. 16, 2021, for the period ended Dec. 31, 2020. You can check out the entire list of Buffett stocks here, or continue reading here if you're most interested in Buffett's recent transactions.

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 Feb. 16. Sources: Berkshire Hathaway's SEC Form 13F filed Feb. 16, 2021, for the reporting period ended Dec. 31, 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.