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), and even to lesser-known firms such as Snowflake (SNOW) and Nu Holdings (NU).
One thing that hasn't changed, however, is Buffett's preference for maintaining a highly concentrated portfolio. Excluding the holding company's Japanese brokerage stocks, Apple accounts for more than 40% of Berkshire's equity portfolio. Berkshire's top five U.S. equity holdings comprise more than three-quarters of its value, while the top 10 account for more than 90%.
But 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.
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Buffett owned airline stocks at the start of 2020; now he holds none. Banks were aces among Buffett stocks to begin 2020; Berkshire spent the past few years kicking 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 equity portfolio. (And as always, remember: A number of these stocks were actually picked by co-portfolio managers Todd Combs and Ted Weschler.)
Price, share totals and other data as of March 31, 2024. Sources: Berkshire Hathaway’s SEC Form 13F filed May 15, 2024, for the reporting period ended March 31, 2024; and WhaleWisdom.
The Berkshire Hathaway portfolio
| Company | Shares held | Holding value | Percent of portfolio |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apple (AAPL) | 789,368,450 | $135,360,901,805 | 40.81% |
| Bank of America (BAC) | 1,032,852,006 | $39,165,748,068 | 11.81% |
| American Express (AXP) | 151,610,700 | $34,520,240,283 | 10.41% |
| Coca-Cola (KO) | 400,000,000 | $24,472,000,000 | 7.38% |
| Chevron (CVX) | 122,980,207 | $19,398,897,853 | 5.85% |
| Occidental Petroleum (OXY) | 248,018,128 | $16,118,698,139 | 4.86% |
| Kraft Heinz (KHC) | 325,634,818 | $12,015,924,784 | 3.62% |
| Moody's (MCO) | 24,669,778 | $9,695,962,848 | 2.92% |
| Chubb (CB) | 25,923,840 | $6,717,644,659 | 2.03% |
| DaVita (DVA) | 36,095,570 | $4,982,993,438 | 1.50% |
| Citigroup (C) | 55,244,797 | $3,493,680,962 | 1.05% |
| Kroger (KR) | 50,000,000 | 2,856,500,000 | 0.86% |
| Verisign (VRSN) | 12,815,613 | $2,428,686,819 | 0.73% |
| Visa (V) | 8,297,460 | $2,315,655,137 | 0.70% |
| Liberty Sirius XM Group Class C (LSXMK) | 65,486,288 | $1,945,597,617 | 0.59% |
| Mastercard (MA) | 3,986,648 | $1,919,850,077 | 0.58% |
| Capital One Financial (COF) | 12,471,030 | $1,856,811,657 | 0.56% |
| Amazon.com (AMZN) | 10,000,000 | $1,803,800,000 | 0.54% |
| Aon (AON) | 4,100,000 | $1,368,252,000 | 0.41% |
| Nu Holdings (NU) | 107,118,784 | $1,277,927,093 | 0.39% |
| Ally Financial (ALLY) | 29,000,000 | $1,177,110,000 | 0.35% |
| Charter Communications (CHTR) | 3,828,941 | $1,112,805,123 | 0.34% |
| Snowflake (SNOW) | 6,125,376 | $989,860,762 | 0.30% |
| Liberty Sirius XM Group Class A (LSXMA) | 32,755,624 | $972,842,033 | 0.29% |
| T-Mobile US (TMUS) | 5,242,000 | $855,599,240 | 0.26% |
| Floor & Decor (FND) | 4,780,000 | $619,583,600 | 0.19% |
| Louisiana Pacific (LPX) | 6,597,947 | $553,633,733 | 0.17% |
| Formula One Group (FWONK) | 7,722,451 | $506,592,786 | 0.15% |
| Liberty Media (LLYVK) | 11,132,590 | $487,830,094 | 0.15% |
| Liberty Media (LLYVA) | 5,051,918 | $213,948,727 | 0.06% |
| Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI) | 36,681,912 | $142,325,819 | 0.04% |
| NVR (NVR) | 11,112 | $90,006,756 | 0.03% |
| Paramount Global (PARA) | 7,531,765 | $88,648,874 | 0.03% |
| Diageo (DEO) | 227,750 | $33,875,535 | 0.01% |
| Lennar (LEN) | 152,572 | $23,523,551 | 0.01% |
| Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) | 43,000 | $20,670,100 | 0.01% |
| SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF (SPY) | 39,400 | $20,608,958 | 0.01% |
| Jefferies (JEF) | 433,558 | $19,119,908 | 0.01% |
| Liberty Latin America Class A (LILA) | 2,630,792 | $18,336,620 | 0.01% |
| Liberty Latin Americ Class C (LILAK) | 1,284,020 | $8,975,300 | less than 0.01% |
| Atlanta Braves Holdings (BATRK) | 223,645 | $8,735,574 | less than 0.01% |
Stocks Warren Buffett Is Buying
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) revealed a large stake in Chubb (CB) when it disclosed its first-quarter holdings in mid-May. With a weighting of 2.03% as of the end of Q1, Chubb is now Berkshire's 9th largest U.S. holding. The stake of 25,923,840 shares was worth $6.7 billion as of the end of March – and increased in value substantially after Berkshire disclosed its position.
Elsewhere on the buy side of the ledger, Berkshire upped its holdings in Occidental Petroleum (OXY) by 1.8%, or 4.3 million shares. With more than 248 million shares worth $16.1 billion as of the end of Q1, OXY accounted for 4.9% of the U.S. equity portfolio, or Berkshire's sixth largest holding.
Lastly, Berkshire increased its stakes in the tracking stocks for Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI) – while also reducing exposure to SIRI itself. (More on that below.) At less than 0.9% of the portfolio, the combined position of Liberty Sirius XM Group, Series A (LSXMA) and Liberty Sirius XM Group, Series C (LSXMK) isn't all that material.
Stocks Warren Buffett Is Selling
Berkshire cut its stake in Apple in the first quarter, but Buffett said he adores the iPhone maker as much as ever.
In another previously disclosed move, Berkshire slashed its stake in Paramount Global (PARA) by 88%, or 55.8 million shares. Buffett took responsibility for the ill-fated investment at Berkshire's annual meeting in May. PARA now accounts for just 0.03% of BRK.B's U.S. equity holdings, down from almost 0.3% at the end of the previous quarter.
Perhaps more painful was Buffett's decision to exit Berkshire's stake in HP (HPQ). HPQ stock looked like a classic Buffett bet when he initiated it two years ago. It didn't work out. BRK.B dumped all its HPQ stock during the first quarter.
Other portfolio housekeeping included Berkshire trimming its stake in Chevron (CVX) by 2.5%, or 3.1 million shares. Not to worry, though: at 5.9% of the portfolio, the energy giant remains Berkshire's fifth-largest U.S. holding.
Berkshire also cut its stake in Louisiana Pacific (LPX), in this case by more than 6%. At less than 0.2% of the portfolio, LPX is the holding company's 27th largest investment.
Finally, as noted above, BRK.B cut its stake in Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI) by 8.9%, or 3.6 million shares, leaving it with 36.7 million shares worth $142.3 million as of the end of Q1. With a weight of 0.04% in Berkshire's U.S. stock portfolio, SIRI is sort of a rounding error.
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 about three-quarters 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 early 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.
Bank of America
Bank of America is Berkshire Hathaway's second-largest holding behind only Apple. 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 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."
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 2024, 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.
Chevron
Thanks to high and stable prices for crude oil, the energy sector is now awash in cash. Chevron, the only energy name among all 30 Dow Jones stocks, is returning part of this cash windfall 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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