Warren Buffett Stocks Ranked: The Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio

Vitesse Energy

• Shares held: 51,026
• Holding value: $971,025
• Percent of portfolio: less than 0.01%

Berkshire Hathaway came to own a tiny stake in Vitesse Energy (VTS) in the first quarter of 2023 by way of its position in Jefferies Financial (JEF), which spun off the energy firm to shareholders. 

In Vitesse's own words, the company "engages in the acquisition, ownership, exploration, development, management, production, exploitation and disposal of oil and gas properties."

Vitesse adds that it "acquires non-operated working interest and royalty interest ownership primarily in the core of the Bakken Field in North Dakota and Montana." Vitesse also owns non-operated interests in oil and gas properties in Colorado and Wyoming.

It almost goes without saying that with a value of less than $1 million as of March 31, 2023, the VTS holding is an immaterial part of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio. 

United Parcel Service

• Shares held: 59,400
• Holding value: $11,523,006
• Percent of portfolio: less than 0.01%

Another quarter has come and gone, and United Parcel Service (UPS) remains a (teeny, tiny) part of the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio.

The world's biggest package delivery company has for some time been the smallest position among Warren Buffett's stocks. It's hanging on by a thread, but it has done so for quite some time – for the better part of two decades, in fact.

It's possible "Uncle Warren" hasn't ditched the stock because he doesn't remember it's in there. It'd be hard to spot. At fewer than 60,000 shares, this is a rump position, leftovers, an odd lot.

It's certainly less than what Buffett started out with. UPS stock was added to the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio during the first quarter of 2006, when Buffett bought 1.43 million shares worth about $113.5 million at the time. That comes to an average price per share of $79.38.

But UPS never grew to be a major part of Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio, and Buffett has pared the position over the years to where it wouldn't be a surprise if he exited the stake at any time. He's also been characteristically quiet about the stake; there's no mention of United Parcel Service in CNBC's indispensable Warren Buffett archive.

Jefferies Financial Group

• Shares held: 433,558
• Holding value: $13,761,131
• Percent of portfolio: less than 0.01%

Warren Buffett has been paring back his bets on the financial sector in a big way over the past couple of years, but that doesn't mean he spies no bargains to be had. 

Berkshire Hathaway dumped what remained of its stakes in U.S. Bancorp (USB) and Bank of New York Mellon (BK) in the first quarter of 2023, but it held on to Jefferies Financial Group (JEF).

In Q3 2022, BRK.B initiated a (tiny) stake of 433,558 shares in the investment bank. The position is so small that it could very well be the work of co-portfolio managers Ted Weschler or Todd Combs. 

Either way, at less than a tenth of a percent of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio, this is sort of an exploratory position at best. JEF shareholders will be very keen indeed to see if Berkshire Hathaway builds on the position going forward – or if it merely languishes like so many of the holding company's other essentially immaterial investments.  

As noted above, Berkshire came to own a small position in Vitesse Energy when Jefferies spun off the energy firm in early 2023. 

SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF

• Shares held: 39,400
• Holding value: $16,129,966
• Percent of portfolio: 0.01%

Warren Buffett's advice for most investors has always been simple: Buy an S&P 500 Index fund, and while you're at it, throw a little money into Treasuries to help you sleep well in down markets.

However, for years, it was always "indexing for thee, but not for me."

The market's most celebrated stock picker kept on doing what he's always done: picking stocks and not indexing a dime.

Buffett finally took his own medicine in 2019's final innings, however, buying not one but two S&P 500-tracking exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

The first of those is the SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF (SPY), which he picked up back in 2019.

The SPY is America's first ETF, and it's extremely cheap. Its expense ratio comes to just $9.45 annually on a $10,000 investment. While many use it as a buy-and-hold investment, its high volume makes it a popular tool for traders, too.

It's great that Buffett finally put his money where his mouth was. But if we're being honest, it's a strange position for a man who is actively trying to beat the index. After all, an ETF merely tracks an index, and will actually underperform slightly once costs are included.

Who knows? Maybe Uncle Warren really just wanted to drive his longstanding point home.

Vanguard S&P 500 ETF

• Shares held: 43,000
• Holding value: $15,107,620
• Percent of portfolio: 0.01%

How serious is Buffett about index funds? Well, as recently as the 2022 Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting, he said, "I recommend the S&P 500 index fund and have for a long, long time."

Perhaps that's why, in addition to the SPY, he also bought the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) back in 2019. Like any S&P 500 tracker, it holds every component of the S&P 500 Index, and it does so for an absolute song: 0.03%, or just $3 annually for every $10,000 invested.

For the most part, VOO is pretty much the same product as the SPY. Both funds track the S&P 500's components. Both funds are extremely liquid. The VOO just has a lighter fee (typical of Vanguard ETFs).

When you add together Berkshire's investments in the two tracking funds, you start to realize those investments probably are largely symbolic. The stakes collectively account for roughly one one-hundredth of a percent of Berkshire Hathaway's equity holdings.

Liberty Latin America

• Shares held (Class A / Class C): 2,630,792 / 1,284,020
• Holding value (Class A / Class C): $21,861,881 / $10,606,005
• Percent of portfolio (Total): 0.01%

Over the years, Berkshire has made several de facto bets on legendary pay-TV mogul John Malone. The holdings are thought to have been the doings of co-portfolio manager Ted Weschler, but the appeal to Buffett seems plain to understand: game knows game.

Liberty Latin America Class A Shares (LILA) and Liberty Latin America Class C Shares (LILAK) represent one of those bets.

Liberty Latin America provides cable, broadband, telephone and wireless services in Chile, Puerto Rico, the Caribbean and other parts of Latin America. Liberty Global (LBTYK), the multinational telecommunications company in which Berkshire also holds a stake, issued tracking stock of its Latin American operations in 2015, then spun off those operations entirely in 2018.

In November 2020, Liberty Latin America closed on its nearly $2 billion purchase of AT&T's (T) wireless and wireline assets in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. And in August 2021, it completed the acquisition of Telefónica's (TEF) wireless operations in Costa Rica.

There hasn't been much action in LILA and LILAK of late. Buffett left the positions completely untouched for years.

Mondelez International

• Shares held: 578,000
• Holding value: $40,298,160
• Percent of portfolio: 0.01%

Another meager position that survived another quarter is Mondelez International (MDLZ), whose brands include Oreo cookies, Cadbury chocolate, Halls cough drops, Trident gum and Triscuit crackers.

In 2007, Buffett invested in what was then known as Kraft Foods. The packaged food company changed its name to Mondelez in 2012 after spinning off its North American grocery business, which was called Kraft Foods Group and traded under the ticker KRFT. Kraft Foods Group later merged with H.J. Heinz, in a 2015 deal backed by Buffett, to form Kraft Heinz.

A couple years later, in 2017, Buffett shot down speculation that Kraft Heinz would buy the global snacks giant.

Berkshire Hathaway maintains a significant stake in KHC (more on that in a bit). MDLZ, not so much. 

Diageo

• Shares held: 227,750
• Holding value: $41,263,745
• Percent of portfolio: 0.01%

A change in the way its subsidiaries report share ownership led Berkshire Hathaway to record a small position in Diageo (DEO) in the first quarter of 2023. Although the corporate name might not ring a bell with everyone, most people are surely familiar with at least some of the names in Diageo's vast portfolio of alcoholic beverages.

Johnnie Walker whisky, Guinness beer, Tanqueray gin and Smirnoff vodka are just a small sampling of Diageo's offerings. Indeed, Diageo sells more than 200 brands in more than 180 countries around the globe.

The sheer size and scope of Diageo's operations gives it something of a moat against the competition, which Buffett & Co. no doubt appreciate. It has other defensive characteristics, as well.

Alcoholic beverages are considered to be a part of the consumer staples sector, after all. And as a low beta stock, DEO historically trades with less volatility than the broader market. Although shares tend to underperform in up markets, they also hold up better when the S&P 500 is selling off. 

Procter & Gamble

• Shares held: 315,400
• Holding value: $46,896,826
• Percent of portfolio: 0.01%

Warren Buffett is clearly fond of Dow Jones stocks, which can be found throughout the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio. But Procter & Gamble (PG) is one Dow component that has fallen by the wayside as a Berkshire Hathaway investment.

Buffett came to own P&G – maker of Tide detergent, Crest toothpaste and Pampers diapers – via the holding company's 2005 acquisition of razor-maker Gillette. At the time, Buffett, a major Gillette shareholder, called the tie-up a "dream deal." Procter & Gamble became one of BRK.B's biggest equity positions.

The dream didn't last long.

The Great Recession eroded the pricing power of old-line consumer staples companies such as P&G. The company embarked on a plan to shed 100 underperforming brands. The Duracell battery business happened to be on the list, and Berkshire bought it in 2014 in exchange for PG stock. Two years later, Buffett pared what was left of the P&G stake by 99%. He hasn't added to the position since.

Johnson & Johnson

• Shares held: 327,100
• Holding value: $50,700,500
• Percent of portfolio: 0.02%

Like fellow defensive stock P&G, Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) has fallen out of favor with Buffett and represents nothing more than a token holding.

Blame the diversified healthcare giant's history of headline-grabbing faceplants. J&J struggled with manufacturing problems and allegations of illegal marketing practices in 2010 and 2011. Buffett was critical of the company for those gaffes, as well as for using too much of its own stock in its 2011 acquisition of device-maker Synthes. Disenchanted with Johnson & Johnson, Berkshire dumped most of its stake in 2012.

Berkshire's position in JNJ topped out at 64.3 million shares in 2007. Today, the holding company's equity stake comes to just 327,100 shares (about $58 million), which represents a negligible fraction of the float.

In May 2023, JNJ spun off its Kenvue (KVUE) consumer brands division, raising the most cash from an initial public offering (IPO) in more than a year.

Marsh McLennan

• Shares held: 404,911
• Holding value: $67,437,927
• Percent of portfolio: 0.02%

Berkshire Hathaway has plenty of insurance exposure in its core operations, including Geico, General Re, MLMIC Insurance and Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, among other. But the industry has never been a major factor in its equity portfolio. Indeed, the company dumped what was left in its stake of Travelers (TRV) in early 2020.

So it was something of a surprise that BRK.B not only bought into Marsh McLennan (MMC) at the end of 2020, but expanded its position in Q1 2021.

Berkshire initiated a 4.2 million-share position worth just short of half a billion dollars during Q4 2020. It wasn't a major position, at just 0.2% of the total value of Berkshire's equity holdings. But by virtue of another 1 million shares or so purchased during the first quarter of 2021, the stake had increased by 23% in just a few short months.

However, Buffett has had a change of heart of late.

His holding company reduced the position by 20% during the second quarter of 2021, then by another 34% in Q3, and reported a massive 85% reduction in 2021's final quarter, leaving BRK.B with a trifling 400,000 shares or so.

For what it's worth, he hasn't touched the position ever since. 

StoneCo

• Shares held: 10,695,448
• Holding value: $102,034,574
• Percent of portfolio: 0.03%

Brazilian financial technology firm StoneCo (STNE) provides software and hardware for companies to facilitate credit- and debit-card payments. And it had been one of the "growthiest" Warren Buffett stocks since Berkshire entered the position in Q4 2018.

But my, how things have changed.

STNE shares more than doubled in 2020 to easily outdo the S&P 500's 18% returns, bringing Buffett's gains since the end of 2018 to 355%. But StoneCo's stock has since gone ice-cold, leaving it 85% below an all-time closing high hit way back in early 2021.

Small wonder, then, that Buffett took some profits during Q1 2021, selling off roughly 3.5 million shares, or 24% of the stake. What's perhaps a little more surprising is that he hasn't touched the position since.

Given the relatively small position in STNE, and the fact that it's a fintech company, you won't be surprised to learn the position was initiated by Buffett lieutenant Todd Combs.

But while StoneCo isn't necessarily in the Buffett stocks blueprint, it nonetheless fits well with Berkshire Hathaway's general bullishness on companies that facilitate and process payments. "Payments are a huge deal worldwide," Warren Buffett said at Berkshire's 2018 shareholder meeting.

Louisiana Pacific

• Shares held: 7,044,909
• Holding value: $381,904,517
• Percent of portfolio: 0.12%

The housing market might be struggling under the weight of the highest mortgage rates in ages, but that's made shares in select sector stocks a screaming bargain buy.

That would appear to be the investment thesis behind Louisiana Pacific (LPX), anyway. LPX, which makes materials for the homebuilder industry, saw its shares come under pressure in the third quarter of 2022, and that's when Berkshire Hathaway pounced.

The holding company initiated an LPX stake of 5.8 million shares worth $297 million as of Q3's end. It then increased the position by 21% in Q4, buying another 1,249,003 shares. 

At 0.12% of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio, this is a toehold at best, and likely a purchase made by subalterns Ted Weschler or Todd Combs. 

Floor & Decor

• Shares held: 4,780,000
• Holding value: $469,491,600
• Percent of portfolio: 0.14%

In the first quarter of 2022, Warren Buffett doubled down (and then some) on Floor & Decor Holdings (FND), which sells hard surface flooring and related accessories primarily through 133 company-operated warehouse store formats.

Buffett bought more than 816,000 shares in the company worth almost $99 million during the third quarter of 2021. He then added another 26,846 shares, or 3%.

But he really put an exclamation point on the investment in Q1 2022, adding another 3.9 million shares. FND went from a negligible 0.03% of Berkshire's portfolio to a more significant 0.1%. It remains a small position, to be sure, but it still fits nicely with some of Buffett's other holdings and investments.

For example, Buffett has made no secret of his love for Berkshire Hathaway's wholly owned subsidiary Nebraska Furniture Mart.

Floor & Decor thus appears to be a way to play the housing market, albeit with a somewhat oblique, Buffett-style angle.

Nu Holdings

• Shares held: 107,118,784
• Holding value: $509,885,412
• Percent of portfolio: 0.16%

Buffett-backed Nu Holdings (NU) went public in late 2021, giving Berkshire Hathaway a stake worth $1 billion as of Dec. 31 of  that year.

The Brazilian financial technology company, which offers digital banking services to 48 million customers in Latin America, was one of the largest initial public offerings (IPOs) of the year. The fintech's hook is that most retail banks in Brazil charge extremely high fees while offering poor customer service to boot.

The chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, for the record, has never been a fan of IPOs. He's said so, on the record, and has notably turned up his nose at some of the most heavily hyped stock market debuts.

But that didn't scare him away from NU, the second widely touted IPO he's backed in the past two years. Berkshire Hathaway backed Snowflake's (SNOW) blockbuster IPO when the cloud infrastructure unicorn hit the public market in fall 2020.

NU hasn't lived up to its early promise, though. The value of BRK.B's stake is down to $510 million.

Formula One Group

• Shares held: 7,722,451
• Holding value: $577,871,009
• Percent of portfolio: 0.18%

In a position most likely handled by Ted Weschler, Berkshire more than tripled its stake in Formula One Group (FWONK) during the first quarter of 2022. The purchase of an additional 5.6 million shares brought the conglomerate's total holdings up to 7.7 million.

Berkshire initiated the stake in Q4 2021 – a minuscule one of just 2.1 million shares, worth $134 million at the time. Even now FWONK accounts for only 0.18% of Berkshire's portfolio value.

FWONK holds commercial rights for the Formula One World Championship – a nine-month long motor race-based competition in which teams compete for the constructors' championship and drivers compete for the drivers' championship.

Formula One Group also is a subsidiary of John Malone's Liberty Media Corporation, making FWONK yet another of several Berkshire investments tied to the billionaire businessman. Weschler, in his pre-Berkshire career as a hedge fund manager, invested in a number of Malone's businesses.

Markel

• Shares held: 471,661
• Holding value: $602,504,481
• Percent of portfolio: 0.19%

It's possible that Buffett saw something familiar and comforting in the shares of insurance and investment firm Markel (MKL).

At more than a thousand bucks a pop, MKL stock isn't as easy for traders to push up and down as your garden-variety stock. That's precisely why Warren Buffett has never split Berkshire's A-class shares, whose $495,000-plus price tag would be enough to buy your average-priced home in Maryland with enough left over to park a couple new Mini Coopers in the garage.

Markel is a three-pronged financial institution. Its three major business lines are insurance (insurance, reinsurance, fronting and insurance-linked securities); investing; and Markel Ventures. The latter is a growing portfolio of companies, such as luxury handbag maker Brahmin, homebuilder Eagle and architectural product maker Panel Specialists.

Buffett merely dipped a toe into this position during the first quarter of 2022, buying about 420,000 shares. But he followed that up with the addition of another 47,318 shares, or an 11% increase to the stake, in Q2.

Globe Life

• Shares held: 6,353,727
• Holding value: $699,037,045
• Percent of portfolio: 0.22%

Globe Life (GL) – known as Torchmark up until 2019 – is another of the small insurance-related holdings in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio.

GL, a life and health insurance firm, might be a boring company, but it has very quietly been a very good stock pick. Berkshire Hathaway has owned shares in Globe Life/Torchmark since early 2001. 

BRK.B owns 6.6% of Globe Life's shares outstanding, which makes it the firm's third-largest shareholder after Vanguard and BlackRock.

Ally Financial

• Shares held: 29,000,000
• Holding value: $739,210,001
• Percent of portfolio: 0.23%

Warren Buffett took a little off the top of Berkshire's position in Ally Financial (ALLY) in the first quarter of 2023. The holding company sold 800,000 shares, reducing its position by 2%. 

That followed a similar haircut in Q4 2022, when BRK.B sold 200,000 shares, or 1% of its stake. 

The selling has been in contrast to recent quarters, in which ALLY shareholders no doubt appreciated getting Warren Buffett's vote of confidence. Although Berkshire slowed its overall pace of equity purchases in Q2 2022, it didn't hold back on boosting its ALLY stake.

Back then, Buffett bought another 21,030,580 shares, or a 234% increase to the position.

Ally Financial has actually done business for more than a century, though for most of that time it operated as General Motors Acceptance Corporation. It rebranded is Ally in 2010, then went public in 2014. Its main businesses are Ally Bank, an online bank that offers traditional products such as savings and checking services, CDs and IRAs; and Ally Invest, which provides securities-brokerage and investment-advisory services.

T-Mobile US

• Shares held: 5,242,000
• Holding value: $759,251,280
• Percent of portfolio: 0.23%

Berkshire Hathaway bulked up its exposure to the communication services sector during the third quarter of 2020 by acquiring a small stake in wireless communications company T-Mobile US (TMUS).

Then Buffett literally doubled down on that bet during Q4 2020, growing his stake by another 2.8 million shares, or 117%.

T-Mobile is certainly a much more attractive investment since it closed its $26 billion merger with Sprint in April 2020. The deal created a real No. 3 wireless company whose total subscribers are at least within the same ballpark as Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T).

The 5.2 million-share, $759 million stake now represents 0.23% of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio's value. 

McKesson

• Shares held: 2,289,864
• Holding value: $815,306,077
• Percent of portfolio: 0.25%

Buffett pared BRK.B's stake in McKesson (MCK) in Q1 2023, selling 565,650 shares, or 19% of the stake. 

Berkshire initiated the position in Q1 2022 and added another 276,369 shares, or a 9% increase, in Q2 of that year. 

MCK offers a number of healthcare solutions – including supply chain management, retail pharmacy, community oncology and specialty care – in 14 countries. For instance, its pharmaceutical distribution business serves more than 40,000 retail chains, long-term care providers and other customers, while its medical-surgical supplies business gets hundreds of thousands of products – everything from bandages to exam tables – to hospitals and doctor's offices across the nation.

With 1.7% of MCK's shares outstanding, Berkshire is the company's ninth-largest stockholder.

Snowflake

• Shares held: 6,125,376
• Holding value: $945,084,263
• Percent of portfolio: 0.29%

Warren Buffett made quite the splash in fall 2020 when he finally dove head-first into the Snowflake (SNOW) IPO.

The chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, for the record, has never been a fan of IPOs. He's said so, on the record, and has notably turned up his nose at some of the most heavily hyped stock market debuts.

But that didn't stop him from being involved when Snowflake, a cloud infrastructure unicorn, hit the public markets with a blockbuster IPO.

Snowflake is a cloud-data warehousing company that plays in a roughly $55 billion annual market – a market that's expanding. And it generated a lot of hype because it offers a way for companies to run their software on various cloud platforms, be they provided by Amazon.com, Microsoft (MSFT) or Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), to name just three.

But hot growth stocks have had a rough time of it since 2022, and SNOW has been no exception. Shares have lost around 60% of their value since hitting an all-time closing high in late 2021.

If it's any consolation, analysts are increasingly bullish on SNOW thanks to the promise of generative AI. 

Capital One Financial

• Shares held: 9,922,000
• Holding value: $954,099,520
• Percent of portfolio: 0.29%

Buffett has been getting out of bank stocks since the early days of the pandemic. In Q1 2023, he exited what was left of Berkshire Hathaway's positions in Bank of New York Mellon (BK) and U.S. Bancorp (USB).

And Buffett has dumped shares in JPMorgan Chase (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS), Wells Fargo (WFC) and PNC Financial (PNC) over the past few years. 

"The American public doesn’t understand their banking system — and some people in Congress don’t understand it anymore than I understand it," Buffett told the Berkshire faithful at 2023's annual meeting of shareholders.

But he's not done with the sector entirely. Indeed, BRK.B added Capital One Financial (COF) in Q1 2023.

Buffett does maintain a major position in Bank of America (BAC). Other financial sector holdings include American Express (AXP), Jefferies Financial Group (JEF), Citigroup (C) and Visa (V).

But mostly he's been going the other way. So it should come as quite the vote of confidence that BRK.B initiated a stake of nearly 10 million shares in COF at the beginning of 2023. With 2.6% of the bank's shares outstanding, Berkshire is COF's 10th largest stockholder. 

Celanese

• Shares held: 8,819,016
• Holding value: $960,302,652
• Percent of portfolio: 0.3%

Berkshire pared its stake in Celanese (CE) in Q1 2023 by 9%, or 891,167 shares. That's a turnaround from Buffett's bullishness in 2022. 

Berkshire instantly became a top-five shareholder in when it initiated a position in Q1 2022. It followed up immediately by increasing its stake by 16% in the second quarter.

Even after the latest sales, Berkshire remains the company's second-largest stockholder, with more than 8% of CE's shares outstanding.

The holding is less meaningful for Berkshire, however, comprising just 0.3% of its equity portfolio. With 8.8 million shares worth $960 million as of March 31, 2023, the relatively small size of the CE investments suggests that it was likely the doing of either Weschler or Combs.

Either way, the commanding stake in the firm known for acetic acid and vinyl acetate monomer gives Berkshire its only position in the materials sector.

In addition to giving Berkshire exposure to a part of the market that it had lacked, Celanese has strong long-term growth prospects and a commitment to returning cash to shareholders.

Buffett generally prefers buybacks to dividends not only because they're more tax efficient (dividends get taxed twice), but because they increase an investor's claim on earnings without the investor having to lift a finger.

Amazon.com

• Shares held: 10,551,000
• Holding value: $1,089,812,790
• Percent of portfolio: 0.34%

Amazon.com (AMZN) is now one of Warren Buffett's more disappointing equity investments. Perhaps that's why BRK.B sold 115,000 shares, or 1% of its holdings, in Q1 2023. 

Berkshire disclosed its initial 483,300-share position after the first quarter of 2019, then added another 54,000 shares during Q2. And while AMZN added 22% during the first three months of 2023, shares have lost about a quarter of their value since Buffett first got involved. 

That's OK. If Buffett really feels like it, he can deflect the blame to one of his lieutenants. Even before Berkshire Hathaway submitted its Q1 2019 regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Buffett told CNBC: "One of the fellows in the office that manage money ... bought some Amazon, so it will show up (when that file is submitted)."

That said, Buffett has long been an admirer of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, he admitted in an interview. He also copped to wishing he had bought the stock sooner.

"Yeah, I've been a fan, and I've been an idiot for not buying (AMZN shares)," Buffett told CNBC.

Aon

• Shares held: 4,335,000
• Holding value: $1,366,782,150
• Percent of portfolio: 0.42%

London-based Aon (AON) offers a wide range of professional services, from insurance and reinsurance to pension administration and financial advising to health insurance. And it represented Buffett's lone new position in Q1 2021.

Like most insurance firms, you won't necessarily expect profits to grow in a perfectly straight line year after year. But revenues have improved without interruption over the past four years, and net income is up in three of the past five years.

That operational strength has led to superior returns against both the market and its peers. AON shares have provided an annualized total return (price change plus dividends) of 20.2% over the past three years, vs 14.2% for the S&P 500.

Berkshire hasn't exactly bet the farm on Aon. And in Q1 2023, he reduced his exposure by 1%, or 61,000 shares. 

Charter Communications

• Shares held: 3,828,941
• Holding value: $1,369,267,591
• Percent of portfolio: 0.42%

Charter Communications (CHTR) markets cable TV, internet, telephone and other services under the Spectrum brand, which is America's second-largest cable operator behind Comcast (CMCSA). It greatly expanded its reach in 2016 when it acquired Time Warner Cable and sister company Bright House Networks.

And it's also yet another Buffett stock with a John Malone connection – albeit a small one now. Malone served on the telecom and media company's board of directors from 2013 until 2018, when he stepped down to concentrate his focus on a smaller group of companies. (He does remain a director emeritus, however.)

Buffett entered CHTR in the second quarter of 2014, but he has seemingly lost his love for the telecom company in recent years. His position has been trimmed down from 9.4 million shares in early 2017 to just 3.8 million shares, including a 370,000-share reduction (or 8%) in Q4 2021.

Charter remains a somewhat significant position in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio, at 0.42% of its equity assets.

Mastercard

• Shares held: 3,986,648
• Holding value: $1,448,787,750
• Percent of portfolio: 0.45%

Berkshire Hathaway might own Mastercard (MA), but Warren Buffett has given credit where credit is due: namely, to his portfolio managers Combs and Weschler.

Buffett's biggest regret is not pulling the trigger sooner.

"I could have bought them as well, and looking back, I should have," Buffett said about Visa and Mastercard in 2018, referring to his own investment in American Express.

Mastercard, which boasts more than 1.3 billion users across the world, is one of several payments processors that count themselves as Buffett stocks.

Mastercard shares have returned nearly 22% annnualized, including dividends, over the past decade. By comparison, the S&P 500 returned 11.9% annualized over the same span.

General Motors

• Shares held: 40,000,000
• Holding value: $1,467,200,000
• Percent of portfolio: 0.45%

Berkshire Hathaway cut its stake in General Motors (GM) in the first quarter of 2023 by 10 million shares, or 20%. That followed the sale of 2.9 million shares in the third quarter 2022, as well as Q2 2022 sales of 9.1 million shares.

In a stake thought to be initiated by Ted Weschler, BRK.B first bought shares in GM in early 2012. 

But BRK.B started to distance itself in 2021. The holding company reduced its ownership in GM by another 10% in Q2, or 7 million shares. That followed cuts of 5.5 million shares (7.6%) in the first three months of 2021, and 7.5 million shares (9.0%) during the final quarter of 2020.

General Motors has always looked like a classic Berkshire value bet. After all, there are fewer American brands more iconic than GM. Buffett also has sung the praises of CEO Mary Barra on several occasions. 

GM is still a relatively small position, accounting for well less than 1% of Berkshire's portfolio, but the recent selling makes one question BRK.B's commitment to the name.

Liberty Sirius XM Group

• Shares held (Class A / Class C): 20,207,680 / 43,208,291
• Holding value (Class A / Class C): $567,633,731 / $1,209,400,065
• Percent of portfolio (Total): 0.54%

Near the end of 2021, Berkshire dumped its holdings in Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI). And yet, Buffett still boasts not one but two different stakes in the satellite radio leader.

Buffett still maintains interest in Sirius via a pair of tracking stocks: Liberty Sirius XM Group Series A (LSXMA) and Liberty Sirius XM Group Series C (LSXMK).

Liberty Media has for years held a large stake in Sirius XM Holdings. But in 2015, the company actually recapitalized, offering (among other things) several tracking stocks that allowed investors to participate in the performance of Liberty's Sirius XM investment directly rather than get it piecemeal through Liberty Media itself.

While that stake has largely been left alone over the past few quarters, Buffett decided to amplify his Sirius bet by tacking on another 5.3 million or so shares of LSXMA, or a 35% bump from the third quarter of 2021.

Visa

• Shares held: 8,297,460
• Holding value: $1,870,745,332
• Percent of portfolio: 0.58%

Visa (V) operates the world's largest payments network, and thus is well-positioned to benefit from the growth of cashless transactions and digital mobile payments. Like Mastercard, Visa was the idea of lieutenants Todd Combs and/or Ted Weschler (Buffett won't tell). Also like Mastercard, Buffett wishes Berkshire had bought more.

And like Mastercard, Buffett's Visa position got a little smaller in the back half of 2021. The stake in V was nipped by 4%, or 425,000 shares, in Q3, then by a more substantial 13%, or 1.3 million shares, in Q4.

Berkshire Hathaway first bought Visa in the third quarter of 2011, and it has proven to be a mammoth winner. Including dividends, Visa has delivered a 18.6% annualized total return over the past 10 years, vs 11.9% annualized for the S&P 500. 

"If I had been as smart as Ted or Todd, I would have (bought Visa)," Buffett told shareholders at the 2018 annual meeting.

Paramount Global

• Shares held: 93,730,975
• Holding value: $2,091,138,052
• Percent of portfolio: 0.64%

Paramount Global (PARA) is a mass media and entertainment organization that resulted from 2019's merger between Viacom and CBS. Its properties include Paramount Pictures' film and television studios, CBS, The CW, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, BET, CMT and Showtime.

It also gives Buffett three more streaming properties – Paramount+, Showtime OTT and Pluto TV – to add alongside Apple's (AAPL) Apple TV+ and Amazon.com's (AMZN) Amazon Prime.

Admittedly, Paramount+ is something of a second-tier streamer. Its number of subscribers pales in comparison to the likes of Netflix's (NFLX), Disney+ or Amazon Prime.

Either way, Buffett has been digging in with both hands. Berkshire initiated a position in Q1, and then upped it by 13%, or 9.5 million shares, in Q2. Then, in Q3, Berkshire added another 12.8 million shares to increase its stake by 16%. In Q4 2022, Berkshire upped the stake by 2%.

With 14.4% of the company's shares outstanding, Berkshire is PARA's top stockholder. That said, at a weight of 0.64%, PARA isn't a huge presence in the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio.

Kroger

• Shares held: 50,000,000
• Holding value: $2,468,499,999
• Percent of portfolio: 0.76%

Warren Buffett once again reduced Berkshire Hathaway's exposure to one of his more recent favorite stock picks in the fourth quarter of 2022. The holding company shed 268,823 shares, or less than 1% of its stake, in supermarket operator Kroger (KR).

That followed third-quarter sales of 2.2 million shares, or 4% of its stake, and second-quarter sales of 5.5 million shares, or 9%, of Berkshire's holdings.

Berkshire also pared its stake in the previous two quarters. It sold 3.4 million shares, or 5% of its stake, in Q1, and 350,000 shares, or less than 0.01%, in the fourth quarter of 2021.

Berkshire Hathaway turned a few heads during the fourth quarter of 2019, when it initiated its 18.9 million-share position in Kroger. But given what was to come, it now looks like a savvy pick.

After all, the massive supermarket chain treated shareholders well during the worst of the pandemic and have continued to outperform. Shares have delivered a three-year annualized total return of 18% vs 14.2% for the S&P 500.

Kroger operates roughly 2,750 retail food stores operating under such banners as Dillons, Ralphs, Harris Teeter and its namesake brand, as well as 1,585 gas stations and even 170 jewelry stores under banners including Fred Meyer Jewelers and Littman Jewelers.

The old-economy value play is a natural Buffett stock, right in line with the Oracle's traditional interests.

Citigroup

• Shares held: 55,244,797
• Holding value: $2,590,428,532
• Percent of portfolio: 0.80%

After Uncle Warren ended his longtime relationship with Wells Fargo, he rekindled things with another old financial flame – Citigroup (C) – entering a new stake in Q1 2022, or roughly 20 years after he exited the last one.

Financial stocks broadly failed to gain any traction during the first quarter of 2022, but Citigroup really struggled, declining by roughly 12% between the start of the year and March 31. However, that dip might have been the push Buffett needed to enter the nation's fourth-largest bank by assets.

Citigroup had been the weakest of the Big Four banks over the recent past, making shares look like quite the value play.

This was a relatively big splash by Berkshire, too. The stake immediately put Citigroup within the holding company's top 15 positions. 

Verisign

• Shares held: 12,815,613
• Holding value: $2,708,323,496
• Percent of portfolio: 0.83%

Berkshire bought Verisign (VRSN) – an internet infrastructure service company that quite literally keeps the world connected online and acts as a domain registry for the .com, .net and other top-level domains – during a dip in the final quarter of 2012.

The company's dominance of the space exemplifies Buffett's love of deep moats, and the stake has paid off well. VRSN sports a 10-year annualized total return of 16.9% vs 11.9% for the S&P 500. 

VRSN also is a teachable example of how stocks aren't good or bad in a bubble. One investor's brilliant purchase often is, depending on timing, another investor's biggest failure.

Stanley Druckenmiller, a famed former hedge fund manager, didn't have nearly as much luck with Verisign. Druckenmiller made a $200 million short on tech stocks in early 1999 while investing for George Soros' Quantum Fund, but lost $600 million in the trade. He then tried to win it back via a big $6 billion buy-in of tech stocks including Verisign ... but he lost $3 billion in six weeks as VRSN and several other recent purchases flopped, making it one of the "smart money's" worst stock calls of all time.

Berkshire Hathaway currently is the largest investor in VRSN shares. It owns a little less than 13 million shares, giving it 12.3% control in the company.

DaVita

• Shares held: 36,095,570
• Holding value: $2,927,711,683
• Percent of portfolio: 0.90%

DaVita (DVA) was a largely undisturbed holding in the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio, at least up until in 2020. Then Buffett snipped 1% of his stake in the kidney care provider and dialysis center operator in Q1 2020. He cut it by another 5% in Q3.

But Buffett left the position alone in 2021 and 2022, as well.

DaVita serves patients via more than 3,000 dialysis centers in the U.S. and nine other countries. Aging baby boomers and a graying population in many developed markets should provide a strong, secular tailwind.

Berkshire disclosed its initial position in DaVita during 2012's first quarter. Given that DVA was a large position of Ted Weschler's Peninsula Capital in his pre-Berkshire days, it wasn't unreasonable to assume that it was his pick. Weschler confirmed as much in 2014.

DaVita's shares have been a disappointment since BRK.B first bought it at the end of 2011. The stock's 10-year annualized total return comes to 4.7%, vs 11.9% for the broader market.

HP

• Shares held: 120,952,818
• Holding value: $3,549,965,209
• Percent of portfolio: 1.09%

Buffett dipped into Berkshire's massive cash pile in Q1 2022 to initiate a commanding position in HP (HPQ). And this big new bet on a PC and printer maker appears to be another classic Buffett value play.

HPQ generates a steady and ample stream of free cash flow (FCF) – the cash left after expenses, capital expenditures and financial commitments have been met – or an average of nearly $4 billion a year over the past five years.

Industry analysts expect that FCF number to increase and – most importantly – to flow into investors' pockets.

Free cash flow supports dividends, and it's no secret Buffett adores dividends. HPQ, for its part, has been not only a generous dividend payer, but a dividend grower. The company has increased its payout annually for 13 years. 

True, the market for PCs and printers is hardly overflowing with growth prospects. But HPQ has a solid track record of slow but steady gains on the top line. Wall Street analysts see this incremental revenue growth continuing for years, all helped by recent strategic acquisitions.

And then there's HPQ's valuation, which Buffett appears to have found irresistible.

Buffett, with 10.6% of HP's shares outstanding, snatched up a boring but dependable cash machine at a bargain price.

Activision Blizzard

• Shares held: 49,439,781
• Holding value: $4,231,550,856
• Percent of portfolio: 1.32%

We know that either Ted Weschler or Todd Combs first bought shares in video game publisher Activision Blizzard (ATVI) in Q4. Buffett said so.

But it was the Oracle of Omaha himself who upped the position by 338% in Q1 and by another 6% in Q2.

The original purchase was simply great timing. In mid-January, Microsoft (MSFT) agreed to pay $68.7 billion, or $95 a share in cash, for ATVI. At the time the deal was announced, the software titan was paying a premium of roughly 30% to the video game maker's most recent closing price.

BRK.B, however, bought more than 14.6 million shares in ATVI – worth $975.2 million as of Dec. 31 – during the fourth quarter at an estimated average price of $66.53 per share. That was a quick score.

As for the second and third batches of purchases, those were bets by Buffett that the deal will indeed close. It's an arbitrage play, and we know this because Buffett said as much at Berkshire's annual meeting.

"It is my purchases, not the manager who bought it some months ago," Buffett said about the latest Activision buys. "If the deal goes through, we make some money, and if the deal doesn't go through, who knows what happens."

Activision shareholders approved the company's sale to Microsoft, but some investors are betting the deal could be scuttled by antitrust regulators.

Perhaps that's why Berkshire Hathaway pared the stake in both the third and fourth quarters of 2022, as well as the first quarter of 2023. In Q3, Buffett sold 8.3 million shares, or 12% of the position. Q4's sales came to 7.4 million shares, or another 12% of the holding. In Q1 2023, BRK.B sold another 3.3 million shares, or 6% of the position.

Moody's

• Shares held: 24,669,778
• Holding value: $7,549,445,464
• Percent of portfolio: 2.32%

Moody's (MCO) is a business and financial services firm best known for its Moody's Investors Service credit rating arm – one of the three major American business credit ratings agencies alongside Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings. It also offers financial analysis technology via Moody's Analytics.

MCO is a longtime, significant holding in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio – and an ironic one to boot.

"Uncle Warren" first dipped his toe in during the first quarter of 2001, and he has been content with his investment of late, leaving his 24.7 million-share stake unchanged over the past couple of years.

The funny thing about Berkshire's holding in Moody's is that Buffett said back in 2010 that "Our job is to rate credit ourselves. We do not outsource that to ratings agencies." Yet Berkshire Hathaway is the largest institutional holder of MCO, owning 13.4% of the financial firm. (Vanguard is a distant second at 7.6%.)

The holding is meaningful on Berkshire's end, too. At 2.3% of assets, Moody's is one of the top 10 Warren Buffett stocks.

Kraft Heinz

• Shares held: 325,634,818
• Holding value: $12,592,298,412
• Percent of portfolio: 3.87%

Warren Buffett was one of the driving forces behind the 2015 merger of packaged-food giant Kraft and ketchup purveyor Heinz to create Kraft Heinz (KHC). It's Berkshire's seventh largest stock investment with a market value of nearly $11 billion.

But it has been a dog, and Buffett likely still regrets his participation in what was one of his biggest deals of the past decade.

Berkshire Hathaway recorded a $3 billion non-cash loss from an impairment of intangible assets in 2018, "arising almost entirely from our equity interest in Kraft Heinz," Buffett wrote in his 2019 letter to shareholders. In early 2019, KHC wrote down the value of its brands by nearly $15 billion. In 2020, Fitch downgraded the company's debt to junk status. Its second-quarter earnings beat expectations, but Kraft still had to record yet another $2.9 billion in impairments.

Kraft's operational performance has at least improved since then, and shares are holding up well amid this recent market rout. But KHC still has a lot of catching-up to do to shed its "dud" status in the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio.

"I was wrong (about KHC)," Buffett flatly admitted on CNBC in 2019. Buffett says he overpaid, and it's difficult to disagree. KHC's five-year annualized total return stands at -3% vs 10.9% for the S&P 500.

Berkshire Hathaway is the company's largest shareholder with a 26.5% stake. Private investment firm 3G Capital – who teamed up with Berkshire in 2013 to purchase H.J. Heinz – owns 7.9%.

Occidental Petroleum

• Shares held: 211,707,119
• Holding value: $13,216,875,439
• Percent of portfolio: 4.07%

Warren Buffett had been absolutely hoovering up stock in Occidental Petroleum (OXY).

Berkshire bought more than 136 million OXY shares, or 14.6% of the integrated oil and gas company's shares outstanding, in Q1 2022. It then bought an additional 9.6 million shares – worth about $530 million – in late June. Buffett added to the stake in July, buying another 4.3 million OXY shares worth $250 million.

For Q3 2022 as a whole, Buffett increased the position by 22%, or 35.8 million shares.

Including warrants and preferred stock that could theoretically be exchanged for common shares, Berkshire owns roughly a third of Occidental Petroleum. Naturally, the conglomerate's large and growing position in OXY was fueling speculation that Buffett could be eyeing a buyout of Occidental Petroleum.

Buffett, however, put that idea to bed at the Berkshire 2023 annual shareholders meeting. Despite having regulatory approval to purchase up to 50% of OXY's common shares, Buffett said the company has no intention of acquiring the oil and gas firm. 

Like the rest of the industry, OXY is flush with cash, which it is returning to shareholders through dividends and buybacks – both of which Buffett loves.

Chevron

• Shares held: 132,407,595
• Holding value: $21,603,623,200
• Percent of portfolio: 6.65%

Chevron (CVX) is the only energy stock left in the Dow Jones Industrial Average after Exxon Mobil (XOM) was removed in 2020.

And for a while, Buffett couldn't seem to make up his mind about whether he liked or loathed CVX. Now, however, it's abundantly clear that Buffett is a huge fan of the integrated energy major.

Berkshire Hathaway initiated a position of more than 48 million shares in the fourth quarter of 2020 valued at $4.1 billion. Although energy prices weren't expected to make huge moves in 2021 after a considerable rebound in late 2020, the outlook for oil and gas was much improved and expected to get better as the global economy recovered.

Chevron specifically was well positioned, as it took advantage of the worst of the industry's woes in July 2020 by acquiring Noble Energy in a $5 billion all-stock transaction. The company's scale, asset quality and reserves made it one of the healthiest players in an industry where a lot of players were on injured reserve. Also noteworthy was its standing as a Dividend Aristocrat, with more than 35 years of uninterrupted dividend growth currently under its belt.

And yet, Buffett reversed course in Q1 2021. In addition to booting Suncor Energy (SU) from the portfolio, Berkshire jettisoned a little more than half of its CVX position, unloading 24.8 million shares. He followed that up by dropping another 550,000 or so shares, or 2%, in Q2, to bring the position down to 23.1 million shares.

Buffett, however, has come back with vengeance. He upped Berkshire's Chevron stake by 24% in the third quarter of 2021, by 33% in the fourth quarter, by more than 300% in Q1 2022 and by 1% in the second quarter of this year.

And he wasn't done yet. Buffett raised BRK.B's CVX stake by another 2%, or almost 4 million shares, in the third quarter of 2022.

Cut to Q1 2023, however, and Buffett slashed the position by 18%, or more than 30 million shares. 

CVX now makes up less than 7% of the Berkshire portfolio, down from almost 10% at the end of 2022.

Coca-Cola

• Shares held: 400,000,000
• Holding value: $24,812,000,000
• Percent of portfolio: 7.63%

Buffett, an unabashed fan of Cherry Coke, started investing in Coca-Cola (KO) stock soon after the stock market crash of 1987. In his 1988 letter to Berkshire shareholders, Buffett said he expected to hold on to the stock "for a long time."

Three decades later, he has proven true to his word. Berkshire is KO's largest shareholder with 9.2% of its shares outstanding, and Coca-Cola remains among the most iconic of Buffett stocks.

Coca-Cola made a brief appearance as a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in the 1930s. Shares were added back to the Dow in 1987, and they've remained a stalwart member ever since.

Coca-Cola's stock performance was a lifesaver in an otherwise terrible 2022. Shares generated a total return of 10.6% for the 52 weeks vs a total return of -18.1% for the S&P 500.

KO has also been an income investor's dream. The beverage maker has increased its dividend annually for more than 60 consecutive years.

American Express

• Shares held: 151,610,700
• Holding value: $25,008,184,965
• Percent of portfolio: 7.69%

American Express (AXP) continues to endure as one of Warren Buffett's favorite investments.

Buffett likes to say this his preferred holding period is "forever," and AmEx is one of the premier examples. Berkshire entered its initial stake in the credit card company in 1963, when a struggling AmEx badly needed capital. Buffett obliged, getting favorable terms on his investment. He has played the role of white knight many times over the years, including during the 2008 financial crisis, as a means to get stakes in good companies at a discount. (Think: Goldman Sachs and Bank of America.)

Berkshire Hathaway, which owns fully 20.4% of American Express' shares outstanding, is by far the company's largest shareholder.

Buffett praised the power of AmEx's brand at Berkshire's 2019 annual meeting. "It's a fantastic story, and I'm glad we own [so much] of it," he said. Of course he's glad: A roughly 1,000% total return over the past quarter-century would make most investors glow.

Bank of America

• Shares held: 1,010,100,606
• Holding value: $29,539,567,372
• Percent of portfolio: 9.09%

Buffett spent most of 2020 and 2021 hacking and slashing at his various bank-stock holdings. But he remained as committed as ever to Bank of America (BAC).

Buffett's interest in BAC dates back to 2011, when he swooped in to shore up the firm's finances in the wake of the Great Recession. In exchange for investing $5 billion in the firm, Berkshire received preferred stock yielding 6% and warrants giving Berkshire the right to purchase BofA common stock at a steep discount. (The Oracle of Omaha exercised those warrants in 2017, netting a $12 billion profit in the process.)

Warren Buffett let go of 2.2 million BAC shares in Q4 2019, but that represented a mere 0.2% reduction. And while he cut heavily into various bank holdings in 2020, he actually added to Berkshire's already large position in Q3 of that year by snapping up more than 85 million shares.

Most recently, in Q1 2023, a change in the way Berkshire reports its holdings led BRK.B to up its stake by 23 million shares, or 2%.

The stake in BAC, worth $29.5 billion as of the end of Q1 2023, accounts for 9.09% of the holding company's total portfolio value. Meanwhile, Berkshire is Bank of America's largest shareholder, with 12.9% of its shares outstanding.

Apple

• Shares held: 915,560,382
• Holding value: $150,975,906,991
• Percent of portfolio: 46.44%

Warren Buffett's love affair with Apple (AAPL) continues.

During the first quarter of 2022, Berkshire used a brief dip to tack on another 3.8 million shares, or 0.3%, to its already massive holdings. And honestly, Buffett wishes it had been even more.

"Unfortunately the stock went back up, so I stopped," he told CNBC following the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting. "Otherwise who knows how much we would have bought?"

Happily for Berkshire shareholders, Buffett got a second chance in Q2, picking up another 3.9 million shares in AAPL when the price slumped.

In Q4 2022, Berkshire's stake in Apple rose by 333,856 shares, or less than 1%. But Warren Buffett didn't go shopping for more of his favorite stock. Rather, the Apple stock became Berkshire's property once it acquired Alleghany insurance company. 

Buffett has said that "I think of [Apple] as our third business." It might as well be. The tech giant represents more than 40% of the assets in the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio. And Berkshire is Apple's third-largest investor with an 895 million-share stake representing about 5.6% of its shares outstanding. Only Vanguard and BlackRock – giants of the passively managed index fund universe – hold more Apple stock.

The Oracle of Omaha has only occasionally dabbled in technology stocks. But he bought Apple with two fists, and he's more than happy to discuss his ardor for AAPL. As he has said more than once on CNBC, he loves the power of Apple's brand and its ecosystem of products (such as the iPhone and iPad) and services (such as Apple Pay and iTunes).

"It's probably the best business I know in the world," Buffett said a year ago. "And that is a bigger commitment that we have in any business except insurance and the railroad."