Warren Buffett Stocks: A Look at Berkshire Hathaway's Holdings

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 Nu Holdings (NU).

One thing that hasn't changed, however, is Buffett's preference for maintaining a highly concentrated portfolio. Excluding the company's Japanese brokerage stocks, Apple alone accounts for 28% of Berkshire's equity holdings. That's down from more than 40% a year ago. Furthermore, Berkshire's top five holdings comprise almost three-quarters of its U.S. equity portfolio value, while the top 10 account for nearly 90%.

As Buffett likes to say, diversification is for those who don't know what they're doing.

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Also please note that Buffett handles the largest positions in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio. Buffett says his co-managers – Ted Weschler and Todd Combs, who is CEO of Geico – act independently. They're thought to manage about 10% of the portfolio. Buffettologists generally assume Berkshire's smaller buys and sells are the work of these colleagues.

Regardless, 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.

Buffett owned airline stocks at the start of 2020; now he holds none. Banks were aces among Buffett stocks to begin 2020; Berkshire soon kicked 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's holdings.

Price, share totals and other data as of December 31, 2024. Sources: Berkshire Hathaway’s SEC Form 13F filed February 14, 2025, for the reporting period ended December 31, 2024; and WhaleWisdom.

The Berkshire Hathaway portfolio

Stocks Warren Buffett Is Buying

Berkshire Hathaway added just one stock to its holdings in Q4: Constellation Brands (STZ), the beer and wine and spirit maker whose brands include Corona Extra, Modelo Especial and Robert Mondavi Winery. BRK.B bought 5.6 million shares worth $1.2 billion as of the end of Q4. At less than 0.5% of the portfolio, STZ is Berkshire's 19th largest holding.

In other buys, as previously reported, Berkshire upped its stake in Verisign (VRSN) by 3.6%, or 455,844 shares, bringing its total position to 13.3 million shares. With a value of $2.7 billion as of December 31, the domain name registry services provider is BRK.B's 12th largest position, accounting for a bit more than 1% of the portfolio.

It should come as little surprise that Berkshire continued to add to some favored holdings. Buffett boosted the conglomerate's investment in Occidental Petroleum (OXY) by 3.5%, or 8.9 million shares in Q4. With 265 million shares worth $12.4 billion, OXY is Berkshire's sixth most important position. Note that OXY shares lost almost a fifth of their value last year and traded as low as $46 at one point in December. It wouldn't be the first time Buffett went bargain hunting in OXY stock, which he first bought for Berkshire in 2022.

Elsewhere, Berkshire added to recent additions, such as Domino's Pizza (DPZ) and Pool (POOL). The holding company initiated the stakes in the third quarter of 2024 and the size suggests they were not Buffett's picks. But let's take a brief look anyway.

The conglomerate bought another 1.1 million shares in pizza chain DPZ, increasing its holdings by a whopping 86%. With 2.4 million shares worth $999.9 million at Q4's end, DPZ accounts for less than 0.4% of the portfolio, or its 22nd largest investment.

As for Pool, which describes itself as the largest distributor of supplies, equipment and machinery for swimming pools worldwide, Berkshire Hathaway upped its stake by 48%, or 194,632 shares. POOL's weight of 0.08% makes it the 30th largest holding in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio. Suffice to say, this name won't be all that important to the conglomerate's overall results.

Lastly, Berkshire continued to add to its position in Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI), increasing its stake by 11.7%. Berkshire now holds 117.5 million shares worth $2.7 billion as of December 31. The stake further cements BRK.B's position as SIRI's largest shareholder, owning 35% of its common stock outstanding.

Stocks Warren Buffett Is Selling

Buffett sold more Bank of America last quarter – and slashed exposure to some other big bank stocks.

BAC is the most important position, however, having been a major holding since 2017. Berkshire reduced its stake in the nation's second-largest bank by assets by almost 15% in Q4, selling more than 117 million shares. With 680.2 million shares worth almost $30 billion as of December 31, BAC is Berkshire's third-largest holding, accounting for more than 11% of the portfolio value.

In addition to BAC, Berkshire pared its stakes in Capital One Financial (COF) by 18% and Citigroup (C) by 74%. At 0.5% of the portfolio, COF is the holding company's 18th most important investment. (Buffett sold COF last quarter too.) Citigroup, at less than 0.4%, fell to an even more immaterial 21st place.

In other moves, Berkshire lightened up on Charter Communications (CHTR), as it did the previous quarter. CHTR is now less than 0.3% of the portfolio value. Other stocks Berkshire continued to ease up on included Formula One Group (FWONK), Nu Holdings (NU), T–Mobile US (TMUS) and Louisiana-Pacific (LPX).

Finally, Berkshire exited what was left of its tiny position in Ulta Beauty (ULTA), and sold off its stakes in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) and the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO).

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 almost three-quarters of Berkshire's total U.S. equities portfolio value as of the end of Q4. 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 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.

As Apple's sixth-largest shareholder, Berkshire's continuing interest in the iPhone maker has marketwide implications. No wonder the market was relieved when Buffett didn't sell even more AAPL stock in Q4.

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 Q3 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 the outlook for crude oil prices, the energy sector is enjoying steady and predictable free cash flow. Chevron, the only energy name among all 30 Dow Jones stocks, is returning some of this cash 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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