Warren Buffetts aktieval ser inte ut som de brukade göra.
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B) aktieportföljen har genomgått en hel del omvälvningar under de senaste åren. För det första har Berkshire Hathaways investeringsgren fått smak för tillväxtspel. Medan gamla gardets favoriter som American Express och Coca-Cola fortfarande hänger kvar, har Buffett &Co. tagit en glans till aktier som Apple och Amazon.com, och ännu mindre kända företag som Snowflake och StoneCo.
Men Berkshire Hathaway-portföljen har också genomgått flera hårklippningar under det senaste året eller så. Buffett har trimmat eller klippt dussintals aktier när covid-19-pandemin drastiskt förändrade investeringslandskapet. Han ägde flera flygbolag i början av 2020; nu har han ingen. Banker var ess bland Buffettaktier för att börja 2020; Berkshire tillbringade hela året med att sparka dem till trottoarkanten.
Tja ... det är 2021, och "Uncle Warren" har inte slutat sälja.
Buffett bröt ut kvasten ännu en gång under årets tredje kvartal, genom att trimma eller klippa 10 positioner. Under tiden ersatte han bara de utgående aktierna genom att lägga till två positioner och initiera två nya insatser. Det är enligt dess senaste Form 13F regulatoriska ansökan, som lämnades in till Securities and Exchange Commission den 15 november.
Om du vill veta vilka aktier som den legendariska investeraren Warren Buffett tycker är värda sin tid och uppmärksamhet, behöver du inte leta längre än Berkshire Hathaways aktieportfölj. (Och som alltid, kom ihåg:Några av dessa Buffett-aktier valdes faktiskt av portföljförvaltarna Todd Combs och Ted Weschler.)
Läs vidare när vi undersöker varje innehav för att ge investerare en bättre förståelse för hela Berkshire Hathaway-portföljen.
United Parcel Service (UPS, $211,52) är fortfarande här.
Världens största paketleveransföretag fortsätter att vara den minsta positionen bland Warren Buffetts aktier. Det hänger i en tråd, men det har gjort det ganska länge – mer än 15 år, faktiskt.
Kanske anledningen till att farbror Warren inte har lämnat beståndet är att han inte ens märker det längre. Med färre än 60 000 aktier är detta en rumpposition, rester, en udda del.
Det är verkligen mindre än vad Buffett började med. UPS-aktier lades till Berkshire Hathaway-portföljen under första kvartalet 2006, då Buffett lade till 1,43 miljoner aktier värda cirka 113,5 miljoner USD vid den tiden. Det kommer till ett genomsnittligt pris per aktie på 79,38 USD.
Men UPS växte aldrig till att bli en stor del av Berkshire Hathaways portfölj, och Buffett har under årens lopp anpassat positionen så att det inte skulle vara en överraskning om han lämnade insatsen när som helst. Han har också varit karaktäristiskt tyst om insatsen; det nämns inget om United Parcel Service i CNBC:s oumbärliga Warren Buffett-arkiv.
UPS-insatsen har varit en långvarig besvikelse, där aktien har levererat en totalavkastning (pris plus utdelning) på 321 % sedan 31 mars 2006, jämfört med 398 % för den bredare marknaden. Det har åtminstone överträffat sedan covid-lågorna, så det är en salva för Buffett &Co.
Warren Buffetts råd till de flesta investerare har alltid varit enkelt:Köp en S&P 500-indexfond, och medan du ändå håller på, kasta lite pengar i statsobligationer för att hjälpa dig att sova gott på lågmarknader.
Men i åratal var det alltid "indexering för dig, men inte för mig." Marknadens mest berömda aktieväljare fortsatte att göra vad han alltid har gjort:plocka aktier och inte indexera en enda krona.
Buffett tog äntligen sin egen medicin i 2019:s sista innings, men köpte inte en utan två S&P 500-spårande börshandlade fonder (ETF).
Den första av dem är USA:s första ETF: SPDR S&P 500 Trust ETF (SPY, $467,43). SPY spårar de 500 komponenterna i S&P 500 Index. Det gör det för extremt rimliga 0,0945 % årligen, vilket kommer till bara 9,45 USD per år på en investering på 10 000 USD. Även om många använder det som en köp-och-håll-investering, gör dess höga volym det till ett populärt verktyg för handlare också.
Det är fantastiskt att Buffett äntligen satte sina pengar där hans mun var. Men om vi ska vara ärliga så är det en märklig position för en man som aktivt försöker slå index. När allt kommer omkring spårar en ETF bara ett index och kommer faktiskt att underprestera något när kostnaderna väl är inkluderade.
Vem vet? Kanske farbror Warren egentligen bara ville köra hem sin långvariga poäng.
Hur seriös är Buffett med indexfonder? Nåväl, han tog upp ämnet igen vid årets årliga Berkshire Hathaway-möte och sa: "Jag rekommenderar S&P 500-indexfonden och har gjort det under en lång, lång tid."
Kanske är det därför han, förutom SPY, också köpte Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO, 429,77 USD) redan 2019.
För det mesta är VOO i stort sett samma produkt som SPY. Båda fonderna spårar S&P 500:s komponenter. Båda fonderna är extremt likvida. Den viktigaste skillnaden är priset. VOO har bara en lägre avgift (typiskt för Vanguard ETF:er) på 0,03 % årligen, jämfört med SPY:s 0,0945 %.
När du lägger ihop Berkshires investeringar i de två spårningsfonderna börjar du inse att dessa investeringar förmodligen till stor del är symboliska. Varje insats representerar ungefär en hundradels procent av Berkshire Hathaways aktieinnehav.
Warren Buffett har haft det.
Wells Fargo (WFC, $51,08), som har funnits i Berkshire-portföljen sedan 2001, ansågs en gång i tiden vara bland de mest uppskattade av Buffett-aktier. Men det blev en tyngd runt Oraklets hals från och med 2016, när många skandaler bubblade upp till ytan. Banken öppnade miljontals falska konton, ändrade bolån utan tillstånd och debiterade kunderna för bilförsäkringar som de inte behövde.
Rengöringsprocessen har varit långsam, och den har gjort anspråk på inte en utan två VD:ar. WFC-aktien har under tiden släpat efter sina konkurrenter ganska länge.
Så Buffett började sälja, först lite, sedan mycket, till den punkt där Wells Fargo har förpassats till portföljens källare.
Berkshire sålde av WFC-aktier under flera kvartal sedan början av 2018. Men under flera kvartal verkade de flesta av dessa försäljningar vara rutinmässiga försämringar av positionen för att hålla den under en lagstadgad 10 % högsta ägargräns för banker.
Sedan kom bågfilen:
Om det finns någon räddande nåd så är det att han har lämnat resten ifred ett par kvartal.
Inte desto mindre har Warren inom ungefär ett år gått från en av Wells Fargos största aktieägare till att äga en obetydlig del av kakan.
En annan torftig position som överlevde ytterligare en fjärdedel är Mondelez (MDLZ, $62,85), vars varumärken inkluderar Oreo-kakor, Cadbury-choklad, Halls hostdroppar, Trident-gummi och Triscuit-kex.
2007 investerade Buffett i vad som då var känt som Kraft Foods. Det förpackade livsmedelsföretaget bytte namn till Mondelez 2012 efter att ha avvecklat sin nordamerikanska dagligvaruverksamhet, som hette Kraft Foods Group och handlades under tickern KRFT. Kraft Foods Group slogs senare samman med H.J. Heinz, i en affär från 2015 med stöd av Buffett, för att bilda Kraft Heinz.
Ett par år senare, 2017, slog Buffett ner spekulationerna om att Kraft Heinz skulle köpa den globala snacksjätten.
Berkshire Hathaway har en betydande andel i KHC (mer om det om lite). MDLZ, inte så mycket. Berkshire är inte ens bland Mondelezs 100 största aktieägare, med bara 0,04 % av MDLZ-aktierna utestående, enligt uppgifter från S&P Global Market Intelligence. Och Mondelez är en nollburgare bland Buffettaktier och står för bara 1/100 procent av det totala värdet av BRK.B:s aktieportfölj.
Den lilla positionen höll sig väl under björnmarknaden, eftersom investerare lade till några konsumentvaruaktier för försvaret. Men MDLZ har gett mer blygsamma avkastning sedan aktierna kom tillbaka i växel. Sammantaget har Mondelez-aktien bara stigit med 10 % sedan den 19 februari 2020, på marknadstopp, medan S&P 500 har levererat mer än 42 % i totalavkastning.
Inget att se här, gott folk.
Warren Buffett är helt klart förtjust i Dow Jones-aktier, som finns i hela Berkshire Hathaway-portföljen. Men Procter &Gamble (PG, $147,40) är en Dow-komponent som har fallit i vägen som en Berkshire Hathaway-investering.
Buffett kom att äga P&G – tillverkare av Tide-tvättmedel, Crest-tandkräm och Pampers-blöjor – genom holdingbolagets förvärv 2005 av rakhyveltillverkaren Gillette. Vid den tiden kallade Buffett, en stor aktieägare i Gillette, kopplingen för en "drömaffär". Procter &Gamble blev en av BRK.B:s största aktiepositioner.
Drömmen varade inte länge. Den stora lågkonjunkturen urholkade prissättningskraften hos gamla häftklammerföretag som P&G. Företaget inledde en plan för att avskaffa 100 underpresterande varumärken. Duracells batteriverksamhet råkade vara på listan och Berkshire köpte den 2014 i utbyte mot PG-aktier. Två år senare minskade Buffett det som fanns kvar av P&G-andelen med 99%. Han har inte lagt till tjänsten sedan dess.
Även om denna "Buffett-aktie" nästan är avvecklad, visade P&G sig vara ett användbart innehav genom björnmarknaden och tidigt under återhämtningen. Men liksom många defensiva aktier har PG-aktier i stort sett underpresterat under de senaste månaderna.
Genom åren har Berkshire gjort flera de facto satsningar på den legendariske betal-TV-mogulen John Malone. Den första vädjan till Buffett och hans portföljförvaltare är lätt att förstå:Game knows game.
Liberty Latin America klass A-andelar (LILA, $13,45) och Liberty Latin America Class C-andelar (LILAK, $13,27) representerar en av dessa satsningar.
Liberty Latin America tillhandahåller kabel-, bredbands-, telefon- och trådlösa tjänster i Chile, Puerto Rico, Karibien och andra delar av Latinamerika. Liberty Global (LBTYK), det multinationella telekommunikationsföretaget som Berkshire också har en andel i, utfärdade spårningslager för sin latinamerikanska verksamhet 2015, och avvecklade sedan verksamheten helt och hållet 2018.
Mer nyligen, i november 2020, stängde Liberty Latin America sitt köp av nästan 2 miljarder USD av AT&T:s (T) trådlösa och fasta tillgångar i Puerto Rico och Amerikanska Jungfruöarna. Och i augusti 2021 slutförde man förvärvet av Telefónicas (TEF) trådlösa verksamhet i Costa Rica.
Det har inte varit mycket action i LILA och LILAK på sistone. Buffett har lämnat positionerna helt orörda 2021.
Som andra defensiva aktier P&G, Johnson &Johnson (JNJ, 163,52 USD) har fallit i unåde hos Buffett och representerar inget annat än ett tokeninnehav.
Skyll på den diversifierade hälsojättens historia av ansiktsplantor som griper rubriker. J&J kämpade med tillverkningsproblem och anklagelser om olagliga marknadsföringsmetoder under 2010 och 2011. Buffett var kritisk till företaget för dessa missförstånd, såväl som för att ha använt för mycket av sina egna aktier i sitt förvärv 2011 av enhetstillverkaren Synthes. Besviken över Johnson &Johnson dumpade Berkshire större delen av sin andel 2012.
Berkshires position i JNJ toppade med 64,3 miljoner aktier 2007. Idag uppgår holdingbolagets ägarandel till bara 327 100 aktier (cirka 53 miljoner USD), vilket motsvarar ungefär en hundradel av utestående aktier.
Den positionen har avsevärt underpresterat när marknaden har återhämtat sig ur covid-lågorna; JNJ-aktier har levererat en totalavkastning på 54 %, men S&P 500 har mer än fördubblats.
Warren Buffett initierade en andel i Floor &Decor Holdings (FND, $130,00) under tredje kvartalet, vilket är mycket i linje med några av hans andra investeringar i hemhandel. Floor &Decor säljer hårda ytgolv och tillhörande tillbehör främst genom 133 företagsdrivna lagerbutiksformat.
Buffett köpte mer än 816 000 aktier i företaget värda nästan 99 miljoner dollar den 30 september. Det är en liten position, för att vara säker, som står för ynka 0,03% av Berkshire Hathaways totala portföljvärde. Men det passar ändå bra med några av Buffetts andra innehav och investeringar.
Berkshire Hathaway, till exempel, har byggt upp en position i hemvaruhandeln RH (RH) – tidigare känd som Restoration Hardware – sedan tredje kvartalet 2019. Och han har inte gjort någon hemlighet av sin kärlek till Berkshire Hathaways helägda dotterbolag Nebraska Furniture Mart.
Golv &Dekor framstår alltså som ett sätt att spela bostadsmarknaden, om än med en något sned vinkel i Buffett-stil.
Sirius XM (SIRI, 6,63 USD) – ett företag som når ungefär 100 miljoner lyssnare via sin kärnverksamhet för satellitradio och Pandora, som det förvärvade 2018 – är ett annat Malone-relaterat aktieval.
Malone är ordförande för Liberty Media, som äger en stor andel i Sirius XM.
Som Kiplinger har noterat är det möjligt att alla Berkshires investeringar i företag som på något sätt är knutna till Malones verkligt bysantinska företagsstruktur mycket väl kan vara en av Buffetts portföljförvaltares ansvar. Liberty Media var en stor position som innehas av Ted Weschlers Peninsula Capital under hans dagar före Berkshire.
Berkshires affinitet för denna position har dock avtagit på senare tid.
Buffett köpte först aktier i SIRI under sista kvartalet 2016. Berkshire lastade av en liten del (1 %) av sin Sirius XM-position under tredje kvartalet 2017. År senare, under första kvartalet 2020, trimmade han 3,9 miljoner aktier, eller 2 % , tog sedan ut stridsyxan under andra kvartalet 2020 genom att minska mer än 82 miljoner aktier, eller 62 %.
Medan han lämnade insatsen ensam i ett par kvartal, tog han fram saxen en gång till under 2021:s första kvartal och tappade 6,3 miljoner aktier, eller ytterligare 13 %. Han höll dock positionen stabil under Q2 och Q3 2021.
Buffett är fortfarande den fjärde största ägaren av SIRI-aktien med 1,1 % av aktierna. Det är långt bakom Liberty Medias andel på 78 %.
STOR DIP I PRIS
Det brasilianska finansteknikföretaget StoneCo (STNE, $31,31) tillhandahåller mjukvara och hårdvara för företag för att underlätta kredit- och betalkortsbetalningar. Och det hade varit en av de "tillväxtaste" Warren Buffett-aktierna sedan Berkshire gick in i positionen under fjärde kvartalet 2018.
Åtminstone tills nyligen.
STNE-aktien mer än fördubblades under 2020 för att enkelt överträffa S&P 500:s avkastning på 18 %, vilket gav Buffetts vinster sedan slutet av 2018 till 355 %. Men StoneCos aktie har sedan dess blivit iskall och tappat 64 % av sitt värde hittills år 2021, och aktierna underpresterar nu S&P 500 med mer än 30 poäng sedan början av 2019.
Det är därför inte konstigt att Buffett tog några vinster under första kvartalet 2021 och sålde bort cirka 3,5 miljoner aktier, eller 24 % av ägandet.
Med tanke på den relativt lilla positionen i STNE och det faktum att det är ett fintechföretag kommer du inte att bli förvånad över att få veta att positionen inleddes av Buffett-löjtnant Todd Combs – utan tvekan med Oracle of Omahas välsignelse.
Men även om StoneCo inte nödvändigtvis är med i Buffett-aktieplanen, passar det ändå bra med Berkshire Hathaways allmänna hausseartadhet på företag som underlättar och behandlar betalningar. "Betalningar är en enorm affär över hela världen", sa Warren Buffett vid Berkshires aktieägarmöte 2018.
Och företaget växer fortfarande som ett ogräs. Den totala betalningsvolymen (TPV) 2020 ökade med 62,6 % jämfört med föregående år till 209,9 miljarder brasilianska real, och intäkterna var 28,9 % högre, till 3,3 miljarder brasilianska real.
Berkshire Hathaway har gott om försäkringsexponering i sin kärnverksamhet, inklusive Geico, General Re, MLMIC Insurance och Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, bland annat. Men branschen har aldrig varit en viktig faktor i dess aktieportfölj. Faktum är att företaget dumpade det som fanns kvar i dess ägarandel av resenärer (TRV) i början av 2020.
Så det var något av en överraskning att BRK.B inte bara köpte sig in i Marsh McLennan (MMC, 167,35 USD) i slutet av 2020, men utökade sin position under första kvartalet 2021.
Berkshire initierade en position på 4,2 miljoner aktier värd knappt en halv miljard dollar under fjärde kvartalet 2020. Det var ingen större position, på bara 0,2 % av det totala värdet av Berkshires aktieinnehav. Men tack vare ytterligare cirka 1 miljon aktier som köptes under första kvartalet 2021 hade andelen ökat med 23 % på bara några korta månader.
Buffett har dock haft en förändring i hjärtat på senare tid, och minskat positionen med 20 % under andra kvartalet, sedan med ytterligare 34 % under tredje kvartalet 2021, vilket lämnar den med bara 2,7 miljoner aktier.
Aktierna i MMC, som tillhandahåller olika risk-, strategi- och konsulttjänster, har länge varit eftersläpande på marknaden. Kanske ser Buffett outnyttjat värde. Bolaget betalar också en blygsam utdelning som ger 1,3 % för närvarande.
Berkshire Hathaway flyttade in i Teva Pharmaceutical (TEVA, $9,44) under 2017:s fjärde kvartal, och företaget såg ut som en klassisk Warren Buffett-aktie vid den tiden.
Den Israel-baserade läkemedelstillverkaren var missnöjd – milt uttryckt. En uppsvälld balansräkning, massuppsägningar och det hotande utgången av läkemedelspatent fick blankare att slicka sina kotletter.
När Buffett klev in var Teva-aktien lägre än cirka 70 % från sin topp i mitten av 2015. Berkshire fördubblade sedan sin andel i Teva under första kvartalet 2018, då aktierna såg riktigt billiga ut.
Problemet är:De är fortfarande billigt.
TEVA-aktier har tappat nästan 45 % av sitt värde sedan början av andra kvartalet 2018. De handlas för närvarande till mindre än fyra gånger analytikernas uppskattningar för framtida vinster, vilket är en bråkdel av S&P 500:s forward P/E.
Men Berkshire har lämnat positionen ensam i ungefär ett år. Dess senaste drag var en liten minskning med 1 % under första kvartalet 2020. Och Buffett förblir Tevas fjärde största aktieägare tack vare sin 3,9 % andel i läkemedelsnamnet.
Sjukvården har vanligtvis inte representerat en stor andel av Berkshire Hathaways tillgångar, men holdingbolaget har vanligtvis positioner i flera av sektorns namn. Så är fortfarande fallet efter BRK.B:s utträden i Merck och Organon, eftersom Oracle of Omaha har beslutat att ta med Royalty Pharma (RPRX, $41,70) till hans stall av Buffettaktier.
Som sagt, RPRX är inte ditt vanliga läkemedelsspel.
Royalty Pharma, som namnet antyder, fokuserar på att förvärva biofarmaceutiska royalties. Det forskar inte på eller utvecklar läkemedel – det hjälper till att tillhandahålla kapital till de företag som gör det. Som företaget förklarar:
"Vi finansierar innovation inom bioläkemedelsindustrin både direkt och indirekt – direkt när vi samarbetar med företag för att samfinansiera kliniska prövningar i sent skede och nya produktlanseringar i utbyte mot framtida royalties, och indirekt när vi förvärvar befintliga royalties från de ursprungliga innovatörerna. "
Genom den modellen har RPRX fått ett stycke storsäljande läkemedel som AbbVies Imbruvica, Biogens (BIIB) Tysabri och Pfizers (PFE) Xtandi.
Buffett spenderade 475 miljoner dollar för att initiera en andel i RPRX under tredje kvartalet, vilket omedelbart gjorde honom till en topp-10 aktieägare med 3,1 % av alla aktier. Men det är fortfarande en relativt mager position inom Berkshire Hathaway-portföljen, med mindre än 0,2 % av aktietillgångarna.
Globe Life (GL, $94,58) – känd som Torchmark fram till 2019 – är ett annat av de små försäkringsrelaterade innehaven i Berkshire Hathaway-portföljen.
GL, ett liv- och sjukförsäkringsbolag, kan vara ett tråkigt företag, men det har väldigt tyst varit ett mycket bra aktieval. Berkshire Hathaway har ägt aktier i Globe Life/Torchmark sedan början av 2001. Under den tiden har GL genererat en totalavkastning på 566 %, vilket överträffar S&P 500:s resultat på 504 % inklusive utdelningar.
BRK.B äger 6,2 % av Globe Lifes utestående aktier, vilket gör det till företagets tredje största aktieägare efter Vanguard och BlackRock (BLK).
Berkshire Hathaway ökade sin exponering mot sektorn för kommunikationstjänster under tredje kvartalet 2020 genom att förvärva en mindre andel i trådlösa kommunikationsföretaget T-Mobile US (TMUS, 117,77 USD).
Sedan dubblade Buffett bokstavligen på den satsningen under fjärde kvartalet 2020, och ökade sin andel med ytterligare 2,8 miljoner aktier, eller 117 %.
T-Mobile är verkligen en mycket mer attraktiv investering eftersom det avslutade sin fusion på 26 miljarder dollar med Sprint i april 2020. Affären skapade en riktig Det tredje trådlösa företaget vars totala abonnenter åtminstone ligger inom samma bollplank som Verizon (VZ) och AT&T (T).
Aktier har dock haft ett tufft 2021, av 12 % jämfört med en totalavkastning på cirka 26 % för den bredare marknaden.
Aktieinnehavet på 5,2 miljoner dollar, 670 miljoner dollar, representerar nu ungefär en fjärdedel av Berkshire Hathaway-portföljens värde. Det motsvarar en andel på 0,4 % i företaget, vilket gör Buffett till en av företagets 20 största aktieägare.
Berkshires position i Store Capital (STOR, $34,24), som den gick in under sommaren 2017, var en ovanlig sådan. Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) – ett sätt att investera i fastigheter utan att äga de faktiska tillgångarna – har aldrig varit stort bland Buffettaktier.
Store investerar i fastigheter med en hyresgäst, inklusive restaurangkedjor, stormarknader, apotek och andra detaljhandels-, service- och distributionsanläggningar. Det vill säga, Store är en satsning på fysisk detaljhandel, som tros vara på permanent nedgång.
Buffett spanade dock på värde – och han spanade på det ganska länge. Store Capitals vd Christopher Volk berättade för CNBC att Buffett studerade REIT i tre år innan han tog sin position.
Oracle of Omaha måste ha sett liknande värde uppstå i företagets nedgång i februari-mars, som skickade STOR-aktier iväg med ungefär 65 % från topp till dal. Vi säger det eftersom han köpte 5,8 miljoner aktier, eller ytterligare 31 %, för att få sin andel till 24,4 miljoner aktier, vilket ger 4,5 % i löpande priser.
Goda nyheter för Buffett:STOR-aktier har avkastat 124 % sedan botten i mars för att toppa S&P 500:s totalavkastning på 115 % sedan dess.
BRK.B äger nu 9,0 % av utestående aktier, vilket gör det till Store Capitals tredje största aktieägare efter Vanguard och BlackRock.
Warren Buffett has found a winner in RH (RH, $649.29), which many readers know as Restoration Hardware.
Berkshire, which already is positioned in home furnishings retail via its Nebraska Furniture Mart subsidiary, added more exposure to the space with his Q3 2019 entry into RH, then made a considerable addition to his stake to close out the year. The holding company has since topped up its position by 1% in Q1 2021, and 2% in Q2.
RH operates 106 retail and outlet stores across the U.S. and Canada. It also owns Waterworks, a high-end bath-and-kitchen retailer with 14 showrooms.
While brick-and-mortar retailers have struggled mightily over the past few years thanks in part to the rise of e-commerce, RH has found success catering to the upper crust. And that success continued throughout the COVID pandemic as Americans, forced to work from home, decided to spend on improving their environs.
RH shares have almost tripled since Jan. 1, 2020, up 198% versus a 49% total return for the broader market. Shares are killing it in 2021, too, up 42% to the S&P 500's 26%.
It's hard to tell whether this was an Oracle of Omaha buy, or a project of one of his lieutenants, Ted Weschler or Todd Combs. Buffett has been mostly mum on RH. Still, the stake fits broadly with the Oracle's worldview. Buffett stocks tend to be bets on America's growth, which is exactly what a bet on housing and housing-related industries is.
Buffett currently is the RH's third-largest investor by virtue of owning about 8.5% of all shares outstanding.
London-based Aon (AON, $300.44) 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 a total return (price plus dividends) of 605% over the past decade, versus 354% for the S&P 500 and 302% for the SPDR S&P 500 Insurance ETF (KIE).
Berkshire hasn't exactly bet the farm on Aon. Even after adding 300,000 shares, or about 7%, the stake is still worth just $1.2 billion, or a little more than 0.4% of the equity portfolio's assets. Nonetheless, it's one of the few stocks Buffett &Co. have been bullish on amid a torrent of quarterly sales.
Among Warren Buffett stocks, banks are the most notable for getting the ax of late, but we should note that he's soured on several healthcare plays too.
Bristol Myers Squibb (BMY, $59.62) was one of several Big Pharma bets Warren Buffett during the third quarter of 2020. In the case of BMY, Berkshire took on almost 30 million shares worth $1.81 billion. Buffett grew even fonder of the company over the next few months. He tacked on another 3.4 million shares during Q4 2020, growing the position by 11%.
However, Buffett shed 2.3 million shares in the pharmaceutical giant during the first three months of 2021. In Q2, he dumped another 4.7 million shares, or 15%. And then in Q3, he trimmed yet another 16% or about 4.2 million shares.
BMY beefed up in a big way a year ago when it acquired pharmaceutical giant Celgene, and that likely was a big part of the initial attraction to this stock. The deal brought in a pair of blockbuster multiple myeloma treatments:Pomalyst and Revlimid, the latter of which also treats mantle cell lymphoma and myelodysplastic syndromes.
That's par for the course. A long track record of successful acquisitions has kept the pharma company's pipeline primed with big-name drugs over the years. Among the better-known names today are Coumadin, a blood thinner, and Glucophage, for type 2 diabetes.
Berkshire Hathaway might own Mastercard (MA, $361.36), 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 974 million cards in use across the world, is one of several payments processors that count themselves as Buffett stocks. That said, the position is a little lighter of late. Berkshire reduced its position by 6%, or 276,108 shares, during the third quarter, bringing MA's overall weight down to 0.5% of the equity portfolio.
Of course, Mastercard shares have returned some 1,430%, including dividends, since March 31, 2011 – several times better than the S&P 500 in that time – so it's hard to begrudge Warren Buffett a little profit-taking.
Besides:Since then, he has left well enough alone.
Biopharmaceutical firm AbbVie (ABBV, $116.84) is yet another of Berkshire's big pharma adds from Q3 2020, but it's also another healthcare stock that Buffett has been distancing himself from.
AbbVie is best known for blockbuster drugs such as Humira and Imbruvica, but analysts are also optimistic about the potential for Rinvoq and Skyrizi, which treat rheumatoid arthritis and plaque psoriasis.
And let's not forget that ABBV is a big hit with long-term dividend investors.
The pharmaceutical company is a Dividend Aristocrat, by virtue of having raised its annual dividend every year for half a century. Even better, its current yield is one of the highest in the S&P 500, and the company has raised the payout at an 18% average annual rate over the past five years. ABBV's dividend yield of 4.8% is several times better than the S&P 500 average of about 1.3%.
Most recently, however, Berkshire Hathaway has slimmed its position. The holding company sliced 29% off its AbbVie stake in Q3, unloading 6.1 million shares. That follows a reduction of 10%, or 2.3 million shares, in Q2, as well as a 10% cut to the position in Q1. AbbVie now accounts for 0.5% of Berkshire's equity portfolio, down from 0.8% at the end of Q1.
Amazon.com (AMZN, $3,545.68) has been a winner for Warren Buffett for most of the time since he first bit into the e-commerce giant in early 2019. However, like other AMZN shareholders, Berkshire is putting up with a rare bout of underperformance.
The holding company disclosed its 483,300-share position after the first quarter of 2019, then added another 54,000 shares the next quarter. AMZN shares are up 87% since the end of Q2 2019, versus 66% returns for the broader market.
That said, Amazon stock is up just 9% in 2021 versus 26% total returns for the S&P 500.
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.
Berkshire holds an insignificant 0.1% of Amazon's shares outstanding to barely keep it within the top 100 shareholders. Interestingly, Buffett marginally reduced the position by 4,000 shares in Q1 2020, but he hasn't touched the stake since.
Warren Buffett made quite the splash in fall 2020 when he finally dove head-first into the Snowflake (SNOW, $393.70) initial public offering (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. The firm boasts nearly 5,000 customers, 116 of which are each responsible for generating around $1 million in revenues within a 12-month period.
Snowflake is generating 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. And the stock is heating up after a weak start to the year, outperforming the S&P 500 37%-26%.
Visa (V, $212.30) 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 Q3 2021. The stake in V was nipped by 4%, or 425,000 shares.
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 whopping total return of 964%, well more than double the S&P 500's 407% total return in that time. Visa also is a dividend-growth machine, ramping up its payout by 127% over the past five years alone.
"If I had been as smart as Ted or Todd, I would have (bought Visa)," Buffett told shareholders at the 2018 annual meeting.
Visa accounts for a modest but not insignificant holding at 0.7% of Buffett's portfolio. Meanwhile, Berkshire's half-percent stake in Visa doesn't even put it among the top 25 investors.
Kroger (KR, $42.66), is quickly becoming one of the most favored among Buffett's stocks, with the Oracle topping up his position by more than a fifth during the second quarter of 2021 after adding a huge chunk in Q1 too.
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 has continued to outperform in 2021. Indeed, shares are up by nearly 37% year-to-date with dividends included.
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.
And Buffett is extremely interested in owning more and more of KR.
BRK.B added 10.7 million shares, or 21%, to his Kroger position in Q2. That followed the purchase of 17.5 million shares – a 52% increase in the position – during Q1.
With nearly 62 million shares total, Berkshire Hathaway is the third-largest owner of Kroger shares, with its 8.3% interest coming behind only BlackRock (10.2%) and Vanguard (9.4%).
It's only a middle-of-the-pack position at just 0.8% of Berkshire's equity assets. But the old-economy value play is a natural Buffett stock, right line line with the Oracle's traditional interests.
Berkshire bought Verisign (VRSN, $239.21) – 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 hasn't done well in the past year, up just 21% versus the S&P 500's 32%. But it has raced ahead by 516% since the start of 2013, which is well ahead of the S&P 500's 291% total return.
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 institutional investor in VRSN shares. It owns a little less than 13 million shares, giving it 11.4% control in the company.
Chevron (CVX, $116.82) is the only energy stock left in the Dow Jones Industrial Average after Exxon Mobil (XOM) was removed in 2020. It's also the sector's sole representative among Warren Buffett's stocks.
And Buffett can't seem to make up his mind about whether he likes or loathes CVX.
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 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 make it one of the healthiest players in an industry where a lot of players are on injured reserve.
Also noteworthy is a 5%-plus yield at current prices. And that stands out all the more given that a slew of oil and gas firms had to slash or suspend their dividends in 2020. Chevron, meanwhile, has raised its quarterly payout for 34 consecutive years, including a 4% improvement announced in April to $1.34 per share.
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.
But Buffett flipped the script again in Q3, adding 28.7 million shares, or 24%, to his position.
The stake isn't nothing – CVX makes up nearly 1% of the Berkshire portfolio and is still a top-15 position. Meanwhile, at 1.5% of Chevron shares, Berkshire is the firm's sixth-largest investor.
Charter Communications (CHTR, $692.91) 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 4.2 million shares as of Berkshire's most recent 13F, including a million-share reduction (or 19%) in Q3 2021.
Charter remains a decent position in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio, at a little more than 1% of its equity assets.
Berkshire technically has three different investments in satellite-radio leader Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI). Not only does it hold a slug of SIRI shares – it also has positions via two different tracking stocks:Liberty Sirius XM Group Series A (LSXMA, $55.74) and Liberty Sirius XM Group Series C (LSXMK) tracking stock.
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 20 million or so shares of LSXMA, or a 35% bump from the second quarter of 2021.
Berkshire is the largest institutional shareholder in each of the tracking stocks, holding 15.3% of Liberty Sirius XM's C shares and 19.2% of the A shares.
Warren Buffett first took a stake in General Motors (GM, $62.97) in early 2012. And over the past few years, he became even more bullish on the world's fourth-largest auto manufacturer by production, upping Berkshire Hathaway's holdings in 2018, 2019 and as recently as Q3 2020.
But lately, Buffett has started to distance himself.
Berkshire reduced its ownership in the car company by another 10% in Q2, or 7 million shares. That follows 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 Buffett value bet. After all, there are fewer American brands more iconic than GM. He also has sung the praises of CEO Mary Barra on several occasions. And the stock perennially trades at crazy-cheap multiples of expected earnings.
But with shares up nearly 260% since the COVID bottom, maybe it was time to take a little more off the top of a profitable investment – even if analysts still like the valuation and potential for resumption of income.
"On valuation, GM shares appear favorably valued based on most standard valuation metrics," writes Argus Research analyst Bill Selesky, who rates GM at Buy. "We also expect the company to soon reinstate its dividend."
Then there's the matter of allocation. Thanks to GM stock’s strong price performance, it still accounts for almost 1.1% of Berkshire Hathaway's total equity portfolio, down from 1.4% before Buffett's most recent trimming.
Bank of New York Mellon (BK, $59.91) truly stands apart from the back.
Warren Buffett has been an admirer of BNY Mellon for some time, and despite his dwindling love for banks, he has largely left his BK stake alone. He did trim the position a little in Q2 2020, but that's nothing compared to the heavy-handed haircuts that Berkshire's other bank holdings have suffered over the past few quarters.
Bank of New York Mellon is a custodian bank that holds assets for institutional clients and provides back-end accounting services. Its roots actually go all the way back to 1784, when Bank of New York was founded by a group including Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Today, BK is the nation's ninth-largest bank by assets, according to data from the Federal Reserve.
Berkshire Hathaway first took a position in BK back during Q3 2010, when it paid an estimated average price of $43.90. Since then, Berkshire Hathaway has become the bank's largest investor at 8.4% of shares. (Vanguard is No. 2 at 8.0%.)
DaVita (DVA, $106.47) 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 has left the position alone in 2021.
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, however. DVA has underperformed the S&P 500 by roughly 167 percentage points since Q1 2012, including a 9% loss in 2021.
For now, Buffett is DaVita's largest shareholder by a country mile. Its stake of 36.1 million shares represents a little more than a third of the company's shares outstanding. And DVA remains a top-10 holding in the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio.
U.S. Bancorp (USB, $60.46) is the nation's fifth-largest bank by assets and America's biggest regional bank. It'a also one of the oldest Buffett stocks in the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio; the Oracle of Omaha initiated his position in the first quarter of 2006.
Buffett is notoriously tight-lipped about U.S. Bancorp and, at least historically speaking, has rarely touched the position. But he clipped it by another 1% in Q3, or by 2.5 million shares, following trimmings of 0.6% and 1.1% in Q2 and Q1, respectively.
Scraping just a bit off the USB stake stands in stark contrast to what Buffett has done with so many of Berkshire's other bank stocks, however. Mostly, he's taken a hatchet to them. And it's not like the regional lender's returns have justified holding on when Buffett has abandoned so many of its peers.
True, USB's total return beats the broader market by 6.6 percentage points so far in 2021, but it lags considerably over the past three-, five-, 10- and 15-year periods.
U.S. Bancorp shareholders no doubt appreciate Berkshire's vote of confidence. The holding company's 8.5% stake makes it the largest institutional shareholder, ahead of Vanguard (7.3%) and BlackRock (6.3%).
Verizon (VZ, $52.40), the only telecommunications company in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, is a beloved staple of long-term dividend investors everywhere. That's why it looks so at home in Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio.
And Buffett is warming to it.
Berkshire and Buffett initiated a brand-new stake in VZ in Q4 2020, picking up almost 146.7 million shares valued at $8.69 billion. In one fell swoop, the telco accounted for a sizable 3.2% of Berkshire's total equity portfolio value.
That position got a little bigger in Q1 2021, as Warren Buffett added more than 12 million shares, improving the stake by 8%. VZ's percentage of assets has slipped a bit, but still remains a hefty 2.9% weighting. Berkshire also remains the fourth-largest owner of VZ shares at 3.8%, behind institutional investors Vanguard (7.9%), BlackRock (7.0%) and State Street Global Advisors (4.0%).
Bulls like Verizon for both its growth prospects in the era of 5G networking, its defensive characteristics and the reliable income stream it delivers to investors.
"With a safe dividend yield and low leverage, we believe the market favors Verizon's 5G strategy and simpler story," say Raymond James equity research analysts. "Whether we are in an expansion or a contraction, consumers' internet and mobile plans may be the last thing they're willing to give up when times get tough."
Moody's (MCO, $390.78) 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 13.2% of the financial firm. (Vanguard is a distant second at 7.2%.)
The holding is meaningful on Berkshire's end, too. At nearly 3% of assets, Moody's is one of the top 10 Buffett stocks.
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, $37.62). It's Berkshire's fifth-largest stock investment with a market value of nearly $12 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, but its shares have gone back to lagging the broader market. 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. Even including dividends, Kraft's shares are still down more than 30% since Sept. 30, 2015.
Berkshire Hathaway remains the company's second-largest shareholder with a 26.6% stake. Private investment firm 3G Capital – who teamed up with Berkshire in 2013 to purchase H.J. Heinz – is tops at 44.3%.
Buffett, an unabashed fan of Cherry Coke, started investing in Coca-Cola (KO, $56.62) 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 9.3% 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.
While Coca-Cola's stock performance hasn't impressed – its 128% total return over the past decade is well behind the S&P 500's 354% return – it has been an income investor's dream. The beverage maker has increased its dividend annually for 59 years.
American Express (AXP, $183.13) 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.)
No one would've been surprised if Buffett had trimmed his AXP position sometime during the course of 2020. After all, Berkshire dumped financial stocks all year, and he even trimmed his stakes in payments processors during Q2.
American Express is both . And yet the position remained fully intact across the year.
Berkshire Hathaway, which owns 19.1% of American Express' shares outstanding, is by far the company's largest shareholder. No. 2 BlackRock owns 6.0%.
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 18% of it," he said. Of course he's glad: A roughly 1,630% total return over the past quarter-century would make most investors glow.
Buffett spent most of 2020 hacking and slashing at his various bank-stock holdings. But he remained as committed as ever to Bank of America (BAC, $47.05).
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.
The stake in BAC, worth more than $41 billion, accounts for 14.6% of the holding company's total portfolio value. Meanwhile, Berkshire is Bank of America's largest shareholder, at 12.0% of its shares outstanding.
Warren Buffett absolutely adores Apple (AAPL, $150.00), but even he decided to take a little bite out of BRK.B's stake at the end of last year.
Berkshire Hathaway sold off 57.2 million shares, or 6% of its AAPL stake, during the final quarter of 2020. But that likely had little to do with a lack of faith in the iPhone maker.
Call it a hunch.
"I don’t think of Apple as a stock," Buffett has said about Apple. "I think of it as our third business."
It might as well be. Even after its Q4 share sales, the tech giant still represents more than 40% of assets in the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio. And Berkshire remains Apple's third largest investor with an 887 million-share stake representing about 5.4% of all 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."
It's likely that Buffett was merely taking profits on what has been an exceptionally fruitful investment. AAPL shares have returned 494% since the end of Q1 2016, when Berkshire initiated its stake. That's more than three times better than the broader market.
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