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By Dan Burrows
last updated
Warren Buffett's stock picks ain't what they used to be.
The Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) equity portfolio has changed dramatically over the past few years. For one, Berkshire Hathaway's investment arm has gained a taste for growth plays.
Although old-guard favorites such as American Express and Coca-Cola still form the core of the portfolio, Buffett & Co. have taken a shine to names such as Apple and Amazon.com, and even to lesser-known firms such as Snowflake and Nu Holdings.
One thing that hasn't changed, however, is Buffett's preference for maintaining a highly concentrated portfolio. Apple (AAPL) accounts for more than half of Berkshire Hathaway's U.S. stock portfolio, while the five largest holdings comprise more than 80%. The top 10 holdings account for 93%.
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 drastically altered the investment landscape.
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 two-plus 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 legendary investor Warren Buffett feels are worth his time and attention, 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.)
Read on as we take a look at the entire Berkshire Hathaway portfolio and examine Buffett's most recent buys and sells.
Disclaimer
Price, share totals and other data as of December 31, 2023. Sources: Berkshire Hathaway’s SEC Form 13F filed February 14, 2024, for the reporting period ended December 31, 2023; and WhaleWisdom.
Topics
Warren Buffett
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The entire Berkshire Hathaway portfolio
Swipe to scroll horizontally
| Company | Ticker | Shares held | Holding value | Percent of portfolio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple | AAPL | 905,560,000 | $174,347,466,800 | 50.19% |
| Bank of America | BAC | 1,032,852,006 | $34,776,127,042 | 10.01% |
| American Express | AXP | 151,610,700 | $28,402,748,537 | 8.18% |
| Coca-Cola | KO | 400,000,000 | $23,572,000,000 | 6.79% |
| Chevron | CVX | 126,093,326 | $18,808,080,506 | 5.41% |
| Occidental Petroleum | OXY | 248,103,025 | $14,136,910,364 | 4.06% |
| Kraft Heinz | KHC | 325,634,818 | $12,041,975,570 | 3.46% |
| Moody's | MCO | 24,669,778 | $9,635,028,496 | 2.77% |
| DaVita | DVA | 36,095,570 | $4,454,554,294 | 1.28% |
| Citigroup | C | 55,244,797 | $2,841,792,358 | 0.82% |
| Verisign | VRSN | 12,815,613 | $2,595,546,101 | 0.76% |
| Kroger | KR | 50,000,000 | $2,285,500,000 | 0.66% |
| Visa | V | 8,297,460 | $2,160,243,711 | 0.62% |
| Mastercard | MA | 3,986,648 | $1,700,345,238 | 0.49% |
| Capital One Financial | COF | 12,471,030 | $1,635,201,454 | 0.47% |
| Amazon.com | AMZN | 10,000,000 | $1,519,400,000 | 0.44% |
| Liberty Sirius XM Group Class C | LSXMK | 48,499,472 | $1,505,908,606 | 0.43% |
| Charter Communications | CHTR | 3,828,941 | $1,488,232,788 | 0.43% |
| Snowflake | SNOW | 6,125,376 | $1,218,949,824 | 0.35% |
| Aon | AON | 4,100,000 | $1,193,182,000 | 0.34% |
| Ally Financial | ALLY | 29,000,000 | $1,012,680,000 | 0.29% |
| Paramount Global | PARA | 63,322,491 | $892,299,471 | 0.26% |
| Nu Holdings | NU | 107,118,784 | $776,611,184 | 0.25% |
| T-Mobile US | TMUS | 5,242,000 | $840,449,860 | 0.24% |
| Liberty Sirius XM Group Class A | LSXMA | 23,740,032 | $739,501,996.8 | 0.21% |
| HP | HPQ | 22,852,715 | $687,638,195 | 0.20% |
| Floor & Decor | FND | 4,780,000 | $533,256,800 | 0.15% |
| Louisiana Pacific | LPX | 7,044,909 | $498,990,904 | 0.14% |
| Formula One Group | FWONK | 7,722,451 | $487,518,332 | 0.14% |
| Liberty Media | LLYVK | 11,132,590 | $416,247,540 | 0.12% |
| Sirius XM Holdings | SIRI | 40,243,058 | $220,129,527 | 0.06% |
| Liberty Media | LLYVA | 5,051,918 | $184,647,602 | 0.05% |
| NVR | NVR | 11,112 | $77,789,000 | 0.02% |
| Diageo | DEO | 227,750 | $33,174,065 | 0.01% |
| Lennar | LEN | 152,572 | $20,452,277 | 0.01% |
| Liberty Latin America Class A | LILA | 2,630,792 | $19,231,089 | 0.01% |
| Vanguard S&P 500 ETF | VOO | 43,000 | $18,782,400 | 0.01% |
| SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF | SPY | 39,400 | $18,727,214 | 0.01% |
| Jefferies | JEF | 433,558 | $17,520,079 | 0.01% |
| Liberty Latin Americ Class C | LILAK | 1,284,020 | $9,424,707 | less than 0.01% |
| Atlanta Braves Holdings | BATRK | 223,645 | $8,851,870 | less than 0.01% |
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Stocks Warren Buffett is buying
On the buy side of the ledger, Warren Buffett took advantage of weakness in the energy sector to add to two of his favoriteoil stocks at the end of 2023.
Shares inChevron (CVX), the only energy name amongDow Jones stocks, spent much of Q4 trading below $150 a share. Occidental Petroleum (OXY) 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 ofSirius 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-backedSIRI in the third quarter of 2023. (BRK.B has owned SIRI before, exiting a small stake back in 2021.)
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Stocks Warren Buffett is selling
Although the Apple (AAPL) move grabbed the most headlines, the Q4 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.
Elsewhere 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 (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 (PARA) 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 inD.R. Horton(DHI),StoneCo(STNE),Markel(MKL) andGlobe Life(GL). DHI had comprised just 0.2% of the BRK.B portfolio, while the other three stocks accounted for less than 0.1%.
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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.
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