Four times a year, holding companies of a certain size are required to divulge their positions in equities. That's a great thing for followers of Warren Buffett, widely considered the greatest long-term investor of all time. His company, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (ticker: BRK.B, BRK.A), which he still helms at age 94, owns a sprawling equities portfolio that directly reflects what stocks Buffett likes.
Although investors don't have an up-to-the-minute reflection of what Berkshire owns, the company's 13F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Aug. 14 reveals the complete Berkshire Hathaway portfolio as of June 30, 2024.
Why Follow Berkshire Hathaway Stock Picks?
There's a reason Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting is considered such a big occasion by Wall Street. Every May, more than 30,000 people flock to Omaha, Nebraska, just to hear sage wisdom from the elderly duo of Buffett and Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger. Munger passed away last year at the age of 99, about six months after holding court at the 2023 annual meeting with Buffett, his longtime friend and business partner.
Future shareholder meetings will surely miss Munger's acerbic wit and business insights.
While the annual meeting lost some of its pep in 2024, people will still closely watch the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio for a simple reason: The company's long-term track record is absolutely unparalleled. In the 59 calendar years from 1965 to 2023, Berkshire Hathaway stock appreciated at a 19.8% compound annual growth rate, compared with a 10.2% annualized return for the S&P 500. To illustrate the power of compounding, that amounted to a 4,384,748% return for Berkshire shareholders, compared with a 31,223% return for investors in the S&P 500.
For every $10,000 invested in Berkshire in 1965, investors would have $438.48 million by the end of 2023. S&P 500 investors would have $3.13 million. Returns like that simply can't be generated by a lucky hand.
What Stocks Is Berkshire Buying and Selling?
Buffett's extreme long-term bias is part of what makes him an excellent investor – it's an edge few other investors have the patience or temperament for. When Berkshire agreed in 2015 to make its largest-ever acquisition, paying $32.1 billion for total ownership of industrial giant Precision Castparts Corp., Buffett brushed off concerns over the bear market in energy prices at the time as myopic, telling CNBC, "We're going to be in this business for 100 years."
Another famous nugget of wisdom from Buffett is his quip that his favorite holding period is "forever."
All that's to say that when Berkshire makes changes to its portfolio, it tends to carry weight.
Here are three notable recent stock purchases Berkshire Hathaway made in its portfolio, two of which are entirely new holdings:
- Occidental Petroleum Corp. (OXY). Berkshire first initiated a position in U.S. oil and gas company Occidental Petroleum back in 2019, when it helped to fund the acquisition of Anadarko Petroleum. Since then, Berkshire has continued to be a net buyer of Occidental shares, and now owns more than 27% of the company. Occidental is Berkshire's sixth-largest holding, falling just behind another, larger oil company: Chevron Corp. (CVX).
- Ulta Beauty Inc. (ULTA). Berkshire picked up more than 690,000 shares of cosmetics retailer Ulta Beauty in the second quarter, initiating an entirely new position in the stock.
- Heico Corp. (HEI). Heico is one of the lesser-known public aerospace and defense companies, and Berkshire picked up more than 1 million shares of it in the second quarter. With industry heavyweight Boeing Corp. (BA) increasingly becoming known for being unreliable and unsafe (especially for whistleblowers), Buffett may be betting on Heico, which makes parts for aircraft and spacecraft, to benefit from Boeing's struggles.
The financial holding company was also active on the selling side of the ledger. Berkshire trimmed its positions in several stocks; here are three of the most notable sales:
- Apple Inc. (AAPL). Long the largest position in Berkshire's portfolio, the Oracle of Omaha decided to trim his stake in the iPhone maker, and do so fairly dramatically. Berkshire sold nearly half of its enormous Apple stake last quarter, or more than $75 billion worth of the tech giant. The stock had been hitting all-time highs in recent months, and Buffett decided to go by his own adage of being fearful when others are greedy. That said, Apple is still Berkshire's largest position, with shares worth more than $87 billion at present.
- Snowflake Inc. (SNOW). Long an uncharacteristically aggressive holding in its portfolio, Berkshire decided to end the experiment with cloud-based data company Snowflake, selling its entire position last quarter. Returns-wise, the stock has been a failure since it went public, down about 50% since its late 2020 IPO. Berkshire, which managed to get the stock for $120/share pre-IPO, saw its position double in value by the first day of trading, only to escape with what was likely a small profit in the second quarter. The stock closed Sept. 3 at $110.41.
- Paramount Global (PARA). The stock of media and entertainment company Paramount has been an absolute dog since Berkshire first invested in it in the first quarter of 2022, down more than 60% in that time. Buffett decided to cut his losses and run from this one, disposing of the entire stake last quarter.
Zooming Out: Characteristics of Berkshire Hathaway Holdings
Although Berkshire Hathaway's stock portfolio – worth about $310 billion – comprises 47 positions, it's not quite as diversified as you might expect for a grouping of that many stocks.
In fact, concentrated bets on companies in which Buffett has high confidence are a big part of what has made him such a fabulously successful investor over time. It's harder to be concentrated with the massive sum of money Berkshire controls, but it's doing a good job regardless: Its top six holdings make up 71% of Berkshire's stock portfolio. And its single largest position, Apple, makes up almost 28% of its portfolio.
Here's a look at the complete Berkshire Hathaway portfolio as of the company's second-quarter filing. Values reflect prices as of Sept. 4, based on holdings that were current as of June 30, with exceptions noted: