16 Stocks Warren Buffett Is Buying and Selling

Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), oversaw a fairly busy fourth quarter of buying and selling stocks.

Warren Buffett
(Image credit: Getty Images)

Warren Buffett, chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), oversaw a fairly busy fourth quarter of buying and selling stocks. Berkshire made new investments in the retail and biotechnology sectors, all but dumped a couple of big names and even jumped on the index-investing bandwagon.

We know what the greatest long-term investor of all time has been doing 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 take that as a vote of confidence. On the other hand, if he pares his holdings in a stock, it can spark investors to rethink their own investments.

Here's the scorecard for what Berkshire Hathaway bought and sold during the three months ended Dec. 31, 2019, based on the most recent 13F that the company filed on Feb. 14. 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 data is as of Feb. 14. Holdings data is as of Dec. 31. Sources: Berkshire Hathaway’s SEC Form 13F filed Feb. 14, 2020, for the reporting period ended Dec. 31, 2019; 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.