3 Stocks Warren Buffett Is Buying (and 7 He's Selling)

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) trimmed its Apple (AAPL) stake in the fourth quarter, added to positions in Chevron (CVX) and Occidental Petroleum (OXY), slashed holdings in HP (HPQ) and Paramount Global (PARA) and completely exited small bets on four other stocks. 

Although the Apple move grabbed the most headlines, the sales look more like an attempt to keep the iPhone maker's weight in the Berkshire portfolio from getting too out of whack. 

AAPL stock rallied more than 12% in the final three months of last year. Berkshire responded by reducing its position by 1%, or 10 million shares. And yet even after lightening up, Apple still accounts for 50.2% of Berkshire's total portfolio value, up from 50% three months ago. 

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Chairman and CEO Buffett is thought to manage about 90% of Berkshire Hathaway's equity portfolio, with co-portfolio managers Ted Weschler and Todd Combs handling the remainder. Buffett, who has called Apple Berkshire's "third business" and its "best business," is thought to handle most of the firm's Apple investments, but it's possible Weschler or Combs made the sales from their own smaller holdings. 

Before we get into Berkshire's other trades, it's important to note that Buffett has always run a highly concentrated portfolio. Apple, as noted above, accounts for more than half the portfolio, while Berkshire's top five holdings comprise more than 80%. The top 10 holdings account for 93%.

Stocks Warren Buffett is buying

As for Buffett's latest moves, on the buy side of the ledger he took advantage of weakness in the energy sector to add to two of his favorite oil stocks. 

Shares in Chevron, the only energy name among Dow Jones stocks, spent much of Q4 trading below $150 a share. Occidental Petroleum, meanwhile, spent a good chunk of December below $60 a share. Buffett has tended in the past to pick up CVX and OXY when they slip below those respective levels, so it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that he added to both holdings in Q4. 

Berkshire upped its CVX stake by 14.4%, or almost 16 million shares. With 126 million shares worth $18.8 billion, the energy major is BRK.B's fifth largest holding at 5.4% of the portfolio (down from almost 6% three months ago).

As for OXY, Berkshire raised its stake by 8.7%, or 19.6 million shares. At 4.2% of the portfolio – down from 4.6% three months ago – OXY is Berkshire's sixth largest position. 

Lastly, Berkshire quadrupled its ownership of Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI). However, at 0.6% of the BRK.B portfolio, SIRI remains an immaterial position. Berkshire initiated a small stake in John Malone-backed SIRI in the third quarter of 2023. (BRK.B has owned SIRI before, exiting a small stake back in 2021.)

Stocks Warren Buffett is selling

On the sell side of Berkshire's ledger, things were a bit busier.

In addition to trimming Apple, Buffett slashed BRK.B's stake in HP by 78%. Buffett initiated a commanding position in the PC and printer maker back in 2022. At the time, HP looked like a classic Buffett value play, but that didn't quite work out. HPQ now comprises 0.2% of the BRK.B portfolio. That's a sharp drop from 0.84% last quarter.

Elsewhere, BRK.B cut its stake in Paramount Global by a third. PARA now accounts for just 0.27% of the portfolio, down from 0.39% a quarter ago. 

And finally, in a series of exits, BRK.B completely sold out its positions in D.R. Horton (DHI), StoneCo (STNE), Markel (MKL) and Globe Life (GL). DHI had comprised just 0.2% of the BRK.B portfolio, while the other three stocks accounted for less than 0.1%.

For a look at all of Warren Buffett's stocks and exchange-traded funds, be sure to check out the complete holdings of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio. 

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